Thalassemia is an important public health problem in Sri Lanka
because of its chronic, incurable nature causing a heavy burden
of suffering on families and a large financial cost to health
services. Treatment is mostly symptomatic therefore cost
escalation is inevitable. Cost of care for managing thalassemia
patient is estimated to exceed 5% of the limited health budget
of the country [1]. However establishing a cure with stem cell
transplantation is unlikely to be affordable by the vast majority of
sufferers even when this service becomes available in Sri Lanka.