Siliguri, May 8: Doctors and voluntary organisations have called for compulsory testing of blood for thalassaemia before marriage, keeping in mind the suffering that the patients of the genetically transmitted disease go through.

“The government has made marriage registration mandatory. Likewise, tests to find out whether the husband and wife-to-be are carriers of the thalassaemia gene must also be made compulsory,” Shibshankar Banik, the joint secretary of the Siliguri Thalassaemia Society told a seminar on World Thalassaemia Day today.

If both husband and wife are carriers of the thalassaemia “minor” gene, the chances that their offspring will be thalassaemia “major” is 20 per cent, Banik said.

“The first symptoms usually occur when the child is between three months and three years old. The child will have a persistent cold and fever, a pale appearance and would be very fidgety,” Banik added.

The Society, registered in 2002, has 76 patients suffering from the blood disorder from Siliguri and its surrounding areas on its rolls. Affiliated to the Calcutta-based Thalassaemia Foundation, the Society organises awareness camps, counselling and facilitates treatment for the affected people.

“The average life expectancy of a thalassaemia major patient is 22 years, that too if some basic treatment like blood transfusion and injections is given. But it is costly,” said B.K. Goswami, a consultant pathologist.