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Say goodbye to blood transfusions!

Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder causing the body to make fewer healthy red blood cells and less haemoglobin.

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To spend 225 days without blood transfusion would have been an impossible dream for thalassaemia major patient Jatin Sejpal (34), seven months ago. However, today he is living his dream for real.

“I haven’t undergone blood transfusion for the past seven months. I am more active, my physical features are improving and even the dependency on expensive drugs to remove excess iron has reduced by 50%,” Sejpal said.

Sejpal is one of the 40-odd patients who are receiving a new combination of well-known drugs and natural remedies for treatment of thalassaemia major, a combination that has rid them of blood transfusions.

Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder causing the body to make fewer healthy red blood cells and less haemoglobin. Regular blood transfusions, at intervals of 15 to 21days followed by iron chelation therapy has been known to be the only line of treatment for patients with thalassaemia major so far.

However, Dr Vijay Ramanan’s therapy, which has been offered to more than 200 patients so far, has helped keep nearly 40-odd off blood transfusions.

“It is neither a new drug nor treatment. The drug Hydroxyurea (HU) is known to increase fetal haemoglobin for thalassaemia intermedia cases. I decided to use it for thalassaemia major cases and arrived at a unique combination of this drug with wheatgrass and folic acid supplements, which were meant to raise the haemoglobin level,” said Ramanan.

Similarly, Ahmednagar-based patient Uday Pawar is on Ramanan’s therapy and since the last four years, he is completely off blood transfusions.

Sangli-based Kamal Kishore Oza said that his five-year-old daughter Kesar came to the brink of undergoing a bone marrow transplant before she underwent this therapy, a year ago.

While Ramanan’s patients are content, other haematologists say that they too have tried using the drug though sans wheatgrass.

Dr Sameer Mellinkiri, haematologist at Jehangir and Deenanath Mangeshkar hospitals said that though he routinely uses HU for his patients, it can at best delay blood transfusions.

Senior haematologist Dr Shashi Apte at Sahyadri Hospital said, “I will need to know more details to understand how the therapy is working with the patients. In my practice, I have seen success of this therapy in thalassaemia intermedia and not thalassaemia major cases,” he said.

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