Babies can be born free of blood disease

Threemonthold Pakornwich Khanthanarat, Thailand’s first baby born free of alpha thalassemia despite both parents being carriers, enjoys a break during the press conference held yesterday by Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine. /Kwandao Jitpana

Pakornwich Khanthanarat, now three months old, escaped the risk of being affected by this blood degenerative disease with the help of new technology developed by Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Medicine. The invention is said to help reduce the risk of the disease by 99 per cent.

Maharat Chiang Mai Hospital director Dr Wattana Navacharoen told reporters yesterday that thalassemia was a widespread problem in Thailand, and children born with this disease catch infections easily and generally grow at a slower level than their peers.

The team led by Dr Weerawit Piyamongkol and Dr Theeraporn Wutthayawanich succeeded in screening embryos for alpha thalassemia, the severest form of the disease, for the first time in Thailand and the second time in the world after China.

The disease is most prevalent among Southeast Asians, and in Thailand, especially in the upper North, about 250 out of every 1,000 people have thalassemia or are carriers. Chances of a carrier's offspring getting the disease are very high.

Wattana said a foetus carrying alpha thalassemia could either die within the womb or develop heart failure or swelling upon birth. Before the development of the technology, mothers with an alphathalassemia infected foetus had no other option but to undergo abortion to prevent the danger of haemorrhaging, developing toxaemia of pregnancy or even dying during delivery.

Now parents have a 99 per cent chance of delivering a baby free of the disease provided the mothertobe is supervised under the new technology. In the new method, doctors inject the mother with hormones so as to induce the production of 10 to 20 eggs, which in turn undergo artificial insemination until, three days later, one of them turns into a 10cell embryo. Then the cells of the embryo undergo a DNA test with the use of the Bt10million machine to see if it is carrying thalassemia. If the cells are healthy they are put back into the womb to grow into a baby free of alpha thalassemia.

The first mother to make use of this technology was civil servant Anchalee Khanthamarat, mother of the bouncing boy Pakornwich.

Even though the screening system costs Bt200,000, and isn't covered by the universal health scheme, 20 couples have already applied for the programme. Three years ago, the same research team succeeded in screening embryos of beta thalassemia, which lead to the birth of another healthy child.