Its medical name is thalassemia. It occurs due to a defect in the construction of the globin chain in red blood cells. If the production of the beta chain is insufficient, it is called beta thalassemia, and if the production of the alpha chain is insufficient, it is called alpha thalassemia. Beta thalassemias are common in the Mediterranean region. For this reason, it is also known as Mediterranean anemia. It is an inherited disease.
HOW MANY TYPES OF MEDITERRANEAN ANEMIA ARE THERE?
Mediterranean anemia can be divided into two as carriers of the disease and those who are sick.
Thalassemia carriers (thalassemia minor): These people have no signs of disease. They may be mildly anemia. The person often does not know that they are a carrier. It occurs incidentally in blood counts performed for other purposes. Blood tests show that their red blood cells are smaller than normal. Since this condition is very similar to iron deficiency anemia, it may cause confusion in the differential diagnosis. Therefore, thalassemia carriers are sometimes given unnecessary iron therapy.
Thalassemia carriers do not require any treatment.
Thalassemia patients
These occur in those whose parents are carriers. There are two types, thalassemia major and thalassemia intermediata. Thalassemia major (Cooley’s anemia) is the most severe type of the disease. These are the patients who have severe anemia from birth and should be under medical supervision.
IS DIAGNOSIS DIFFICULT?
The diagnosis of thalassemia disease or carriers is not difficult. However, carriers are often overlooked. The first thing to do is the examination called complete blood count. It is inexpensive and can be made anywhere. If the red blood cells are smaller than normal in the blood count, some blood tests for iron metabolism are performed to distinguish it from iron deficiency. After these, a definitive diagnosis is made by hemoglobin electrophoresis.
WHAT SHOULD TALASEMIA CARRIERS CONSIDER?
Thalassemia is a disease transmitted between generations by genes. It is very important to know whether the parents are carriers before marriage. If one of the parents is a carrier, the probability of the baby being a carrier is 50% in each pregnancy. If both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance that a sick baby will be born.
If two carriers are married and they want to have a baby, prenatal diagnosis methods should be used to examine whether the baby is sick or not. IS thalassemia a problem for Turkey? Thalassemia is common in our country. According to the data of the Ministry of Health, thalassemia carrier is very common especially in Çukurova, Mediterranean coastline, Aegean and Marmara regions. Again, according to the data of the Ministry of Health, the frequency of beta-thalassemia carriers in Turkey is 2.1%, and there are approximately 1.300.000 carriers and around 4000 patients.
The most important step in the prevention of thalassemia is to screen the couples to be married for carriers, and if they are carriers, they should receive genetic counseling.
Ministry of Health Considering the incidence of the disease, in 33 provinces at risk (Konya, Karaman, Burdur, Isparta, İzmir, Denizli, Manisa, İstanbul, Bursa, Çanakkale, Kütahya, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Antalya, İçel, Hatay, Ankara, Tekirdağ) , Edirne, Diyarbakır, Bilecik, Kırklareli, Kayseri, Sakarya, Kocaeli, Şanlıurfa, Eskişehir, Batman, Düzce, Adana, Aydın, Muğla, Düzce) Hemoglobinopathy Control Program.
