Shillong, May 08: India is situated in the Thalassemia belt of the world. In India around 4% people carry the genetic trait of the disease and are carriers. The disease is inherited and transmitted from parents to their children.
When both parents happen to be carrier, their children have a 25 % chance of being born with disease called Thalassemia major. 50 % of children of carrier parents may be born as carrier of the disease.
Around 10,000 babies are born with Thalassemia major every year in our country. In India, at any given point of time, one lakh patients depend on regular blood transfusion.
Before planning for any pregnancy or if a couple is pregnant, it is important for the couple to get tested for Thalassemia. If both parents are diagnosed as carrier, it is important to carry out tests for fetal affection.
The department of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Centre, NEIGRIHMS has been active over the last 15 years in managing almost all the cases of Thalassemia patients of the state of Meghalaya total of 39 known patients by providing them blood units which are rare red blood antigen matched and leuco-filtered Packed Red Cells.
