Health ministry honours outgoing thalassaemia chairman

The health ministry honoured the outgoing chairman of the national thalassaemia commission Panos Englezos, with a prize-giving ceremony.

The ceremony was attended by Health Minister Popi Kanari, who congratulated “the amazing work of a real visionary, the name of whom has been synonymous with altruism for 60 or more years”.

“His decades-long tireless and irresistible fight against thalassaemia brought brilliant results worldwide, such as the founding of the International thalassaemia federation, which he has led since 1986 until today,” she said.

“Cyprus, thanks to the unceasing work of people such as Panos Englezos, is at the forefront of the fight for detection, control, and management of thalassaemia, exhibiting its example across the globe.”

She went on to mention a number of prizes won by Englezos for his work, including the King Abdulaziz prize from the King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, as well as being honoured by the Panhellenic haematology society.

She also mentioned that Englezos had met with national health providers in a total of 62 countries to promote suggestions regarding the fight against thalassaemia.

Englezos thanked the government, Kanari, and the health ministry, as well as the church, saying “without them, all of this success would never have been achieved”.

Thalassaemia is a hereditary blood disorder caused when the body does not make enough of a protein called haemoglobin, which is an important part of red blood cells. Cyprus has one of the highest thalassaemia carrier rates in the world, believed to be around 15 per cent.