Minor thalassemia?

How long their life ?

is an inherited disease of the red blood cells, classified as a hemoglobinopathy. The genetic defect results in synthesis of an abnormal hemoglobin molecule. The blood cells are vulnerable to mechanical injury and die easily. To survive, many people with thalassaemia need blood transfusions at regular intervals.

Thalassemia Minor
Contrary to popular belief, Thalassemia Minor patients should not avoid iron-rich foods by default. A serum ferritin test can determine what their iron levels are and guide them to further treatment if necessary. Thalassemia Minor, although not life threatening on its own, can affect quality of life due to the effects of a mild to moderate anemia. Studies have shown that thalassemia Minor often coexists with other diseases such as asthma [2], and even bipolar disorder [3].


Thalassemia prevention and management
伪 and 尾 thalassemia are often inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion although this is not always the case. Reports of dominantly inherited 伪 and 尾 thalassemias have been reported the first of which was in an Irish family who had a two deletions of 4 and 11 bp in exon 3 interrupted by an insertion of 5 bp in the 尾-globin gene. For the autosomal recessive forms of the disease both parents must be carriers in order for a child to be affected. If both parents carry a hemoglobinopathy trait, there is a 25% chance with each pregnancy for an affected child. Genetic counseling and genetic testing is recommended for families that carry a thalassemia trait.

There an estimated 60-80 million people in the world who carry the beta thalassemia trait alone. This is a very rough estimate and the actual number of thalassemia Major patients is unknown due to the prevalence of thalassemia in less developed countries in the Middle East and Asia. Countries such as India, Pakistan and Iran are seeing a large increase of thalassemia patients due to lack of genetic counseling and screening. There is growing concern that thalassemia may become a very serious problem in the next 50 years, one that will burden the world's blood bank supplies and the health system in general. There is an estimated 1,000 people living with thalassemia Major in the United States and an unknown number of carriers. Because of the rarity of the disease in countries with little knowledge of thalassemia, access to proper treatment and diagnosis can be difficult.

As with other genetically acquired disorders, aggressive birth screening and genetic counseling is recommended for prevention of a world crisis.

A screening policy exists on both sides of the island of Cyprus to reduce the incidence of thalassemia, which since the program's implementation in the 1970s (which also includes pre-natal screening and abortion) has reduced the number of children born with the hereditary blood disease from 1 out of every 158 births to almost zero.

Occur in Mediteranean region, Middle and Far East. This is conditon of variable severity ranging from most severe thalssemias to the mild hetrozygus form in which the patient have mild microcytic hypochromic anaemia.