In Pakistan, every year 5,000 babies are born with Thalassemia. Pakistan is among the highest thalassemia burden countries in the world. The commonly quoted figure for the country is 100,000 transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients.
What is the ratio in your country? Is there any awareness program run by government?
Regards.
Actually, I don't know, but it is a good question & we are waiting for an answer from the specialists. Good luck.
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disease caused by a lack of hemoglobin. chronic hemolytic anemia. In my country 6 to 8% of the population are affected:
A study from Basra - IRAQ; showed that the overall carrier frequency of β-thalassemia was 4.6%, but with a diversity in carrier rate in different areas of Basra ranging from 3.3% to 7.9%, mainly due to high rates of relative marriages .
For more details please have a look at this article.
Article Frequency of haemoglobinopathies and glucose-6-phosphate deh...
In Russia prevalence of heterozygous carriers of β-thalassemia gene in Russian ethnic group is 1%, mostly in Volga region. As for migrants, it is much higher - about 7-10%, in some regions of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - up to 10-15%. So most of patients in Russia (90%) are children from migrants or mixed marriage couples.
Here in the United States, thallassemia is relatively rare. The official number is 0-5%, although in 40 years of practice, I have seen only two cases, one of thallassemia major, the other of thallassemia minor. The major case was on monthly blood transfusions. The boy's family had moved to the US from the Panjab region, India, because they were hoping to get superior medical treatment here. Homeopathic treatment reduced this to blood transfusions to one every two months. The boy is now an adult and still alive. The thallassemia minor case completely recovered from her symptoms of anemia with treatment.
Dr Ghulam Yaseen
Dear Doctor,
Thank you for initiating this interesting topic of discussion.
The disease that you are talking about, is an acute one in India. There is literally no awareness among the common people about this and that has added 'salt to injury'.
In this context, a link is shared below.
Article Burden of thalassemia in India: The road map for control
Best regards,
Anamitra.
You might be interested in this recent paper:
Bin Hashim Halim-Fikri et al, Global Globin Network Consensus Paper: Classification and Stratified Roadmaps for Improved Thalassaemia Care and Prevention in 32 Countries, J. Pers. Med. 2022, 12(4), 552
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/4/552
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder caused when the body doesn't make enough of protein.
Thalassemia is common in Mediterranean countries, such as Greece and Turkey, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
- India is the thalassemia capital of the world with 40 million carriers and over 1, 00,000 patients.
- There is no prevention and control programme at the national level.
- With preventive health checks not being the norm in India, people suffering from thalassemia are unknowingly passing on this genetic disorder to their children.
- Over 1, 00,000 patients across the country die before they turn 20 due to lack of access to treatment.
- The Centre for Health Ecologies and Technology (CHET), framed first ever draft policy in India for rare diseases, it is submitted to the Karnataka government in March 2016.
Thalassemia in India | Current Affairs (iasparliament.com)
Thalassemia | National Health Portal Of India (nhp.gov.in)
ABSTRACT
Thalassemia is an autosomal recessive disease that is common in Iraq with a prevalence of 35.7 per 100,000. It is the most common type of hereditary anemia registered in 2015. It is a life-threatening condition with many complications which if not managed could cause death in early age. This study aimed to assess the awareness of Iraqi people about thalassemia transmission and prevention and to find their source of information about the disease, as developing good awareness is the first and the most advantageous road to establish a successful prevention program. This cross-sectional study involved 417 participants who were from medical and non-medical fields. It was conducted as an online survey in addition to participants interview using a self-structured questionnaire which was tested for content and face validity, unidimensionality and test-retest reliability in a pilot study of 40 participants. Each participant who had heard about the disease was given a score (0-5) based on their knowledge: 68.8% of the people had heard about the disease previously, those had a mean score of 3 out of 5; 84% claimed that thalassemia is a noncommunicable disease which resembles the highest awareness aspect. The lowest one was about the preventability of the disease. Significant correlation was found between the score of awareness and the age. People awareness about thalassemia was relatively good. A control strategy should be directed to elevate the awareness level about thalassemia in the community with the application of the national program for thalassemia control