S. China making strides in reducing blood disease cases

Free checks offered to prevent fatal chronic anemia

With a screening and prevention program that began in 2010, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has prevented the birth of more than 3,000 infants with a lethal form of chronic anemia.

On World Thalassemis Day, Wednesday, the Guangxi Health Department chronicled the successes of its program that screened 2.8 million people and identified 204,400 carriers of the gene that causes the disease.