Born into risk: the hidden cost of cousin marriages in K

Seven-year-old Muhammad Aban, from a poor family and currently admitted to Benazir Children’s Hospital in Mardan (BCHM), longs to play with other children but is too weak due to complications from thalassaemia.

Diagnosed when he was just 11 months old, he needs two to three blood transfusions every week to survive. His mother, Aneela Bibi, says he has spent much of his childhood in hospitals undergoing treatment. Aban’s 11-year-old elder brother also suffers from the same disease and has survived only because of regular blood donations, she shares.

“First, we would ask relatives and neighbours, and then my husband’s friends would donate blood for our children,” she says. “But later they became reluctant to visit hospitals and donate blood. Although the hospital now provides free blood, t