The Thalassemia Fact Sheet contains a brief explanation of the genetic disease of Thalassemia: ll anemia
It is a hereditary disease that affects the blood and spreads in many parts of the world, especially the Middle East and Asia.
There are two types:
The patient with thalassemia:
It is a serious disease whose symptoms start at an early childhood stage and the injured children cannot form the blood dye that carries oxygen to the different parts of the body enough, so they need regular blood transfusions every month to compensate for this deficiency.Pregnant genetic factor:
This person is perfectly healthy but can transmit the disease to a child. Each year 100,000 babies are born with the disease.
What are the components of blood?
Blood is composed of many red blood cells along with a yellow liquid called plasma. It also contains white blood cells that resist disease and platelets to help stop bleeding. Every red blood cell lives about 4 months and then dies and breaks. The body can form new cells every day, so a person can donate blood without affecting their health because their body will compensate for what was taken quickly.
The color of the blood is red because it contains a dye called haemoglobin. This dye is very important for carrying oxygen to different parts of the body.
Haemoglobin contains a lot of iron. When the red blood cells die and break down, the iron in them is used to make new red blood cells and some iron is lost in the urine, but we quickly compensate as the body re-enters it with the food we eat.
Our food may be iron-free, so people get anaemia due to iron deficiency.
Thalassemia is a type of malignant anaemia which is produced by the fact that the body is unable to form sufficient haemoglobin dye. This disease is hereditary and there are two types of it:
A. Thalassemia (Phthalasmia).
B. Beta-thalassemia.
Who is the carrier of the genetic factor of the disease?
He is a healthy person but may have very mild anaemia. Most people with the hereditary disease know this only if they have a special blood test or have a child with the disease. The red blood cells in this person are normal but maybe slightly smaller.
How important is it to know that I am pregnant with the genetic agent of the disease if you are healthy?
This is very important as some of these people have children with this serious disease if they marry another pregnant woman with the same genetic characteristics.
Are pregnant women susceptible to these genetic factors?
No. No medical care required.
Will the genetic factor of the disease be susceptible to other diseases?
Both.
Does this affect the ability to work or the quality of work?
Both.
Is the genetic factor of the disease weak physically or mentally?
Both.
Is there a cure for this?
No. If you are born with it, nothing can change that.
Does the pregnant woman become a hereditary patient?
Both.
Why do people with hereditary factors increase in some countries?
People with Thalassemia have more resistance to malaria, and this disease has been widespread in our region and has killed many healthy people who do not have this factor because the malaria parasite proliferates in the blood of healthy people only, and those who carry the disease have been able to resist and survive and multiply.
What are the symptoms of the disease?
(Symptoms that appear on the affected child)
Thalassemia is a serious disease that has caused severe impairment since childhood. As we have said, the infected children cannot have enough blood dye so the bone marrow within the large, long bones cannot have enough red blood cells and the free or haemoglobin cells are small.
Children who are naturally infected after childbirth may be symptomatic after the third month. They may develop lupus, loss of appetite, vomiting, difficulty sleeping, and if not treated, the disease may be fatal between the first and eighth years.
Is there a cure for thalassemia?
The only treatment is regular blood transfusions (almost every month). Children treated in this way may grow naturally and reach the third decade but need continuous medical attention.
Each time new blood is given, a quantity of iron accumulates in their bodies. This iron accumulates in kidneys, liver, and other parts of the body and harms their health, so they need another treatment, which is to get rid of the amount of iron accumulated from their bodies.
First Family:
– Parents Solomon.
– All children are healthy.
– There is no carrier of the genetic factor of the disease.
Second Family:
– One of the parents is pregnant with the genetic agent of the disease.
– Some children carry the genetic factor of the disease but no children are sick.
Third Family:
– Both parents carry the genetic factor of the disease.
– Some children are 25% sick.
– Some of them carry the disease 50%.
– Some are healthy 25%.
Fourth Family:
– The father is sick and the mother is sound.
– All children are carriers of the disease but do not show symptoms of the disease and this marriage is the most appropriate for the patient.
Fifth Family:
Here the wife is infected with the disease and the husband is pregnant with the genetic factor of the disease, that the wife has two of the genes infected and the husband has a healthy gene and the last infected. There are two possibilities for the child:
That the child takes the infected gene from each of the parents and will be infected with the disease, such as the mother.
Or that it takes a healthy gene from the father and the infected gene from the mother (because the mother can only give the infected gene in this case) and shall be a carrier of the disease. That is, for each child there is a 50% probability to be a carrier of the genetic disease, and 50% to be infected with the disease but it cannot be 100% healthy.
