Check your thalassaemia status before marriage
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Testing a foetus at an early stage of pregnancy for thalassaemia status is the only way to check the growth of beta thalassaemia carriers, said Dr Dipika Mohanty, former director, National Institute of Immuno Hematology of Mumbai, said today.
She was speaking at the National Conference of Community Genetics Approaches in Prevention of Beta Thalassaemia held in the city this morning.
As beta-thalassaemia is an inherited haemoglobin disorder, both the husband and wife should undergo a test to detect thalassaemia. In most cases the newborns become thalassaemic when both parents happen to be beta thalassaemia carriers. However, the chances of infected are lowered almost by 50 per cent if one of the parents are not beta thalasaemia carriers, said Prof IC Verma, chairman, department of genetic medicine of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.
“Pre-marital thalassaemia status check up is more important than matching horoscopes to prevent growth of thalassaemia patients in India,” Prof Verma said.
A survey conducted in the city shows nearly eight per cent of Kolkata's population are carriers of such haemoglobin disorders, which is comparatively higher than other metros of India. Thus, Prof Verma requested Indian Council of Medical Research and the department of Biotechnology to increase the awareness programme in the city.
Meanwhile, Dr VR Rao, director in-charge, Anthropological Survey of India, said even after 50 years of detection of the disease by Dr JB Chatterjee in Kolkata, the city lacks the infrastructure for DNA test which happens to be the only method to identify thalassaemia in human body. Thus, Kolkatans have to depend on cities like New Delhi and Mumbai for this test, which becomes expensive and the report also gets delayed.
She was speaking at the National Conference of Community Genetics Approaches in Prevention of Beta Thalassaemia held in the city this morning.
As beta-thalassaemia is an inherited haemoglobin disorder, both the husband and wife should undergo a test to detect thalassaemia. In most cases the newborns become thalassaemic when both parents happen to be beta thalassaemia carriers. However, the chances of infected are lowered almost by 50 per cent if one of the parents are not beta thalasaemia carriers, said Prof IC Verma, chairman, department of genetic medicine of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.
“Pre-marital thalassaemia status check up is more important than matching horoscopes to prevent growth of thalassaemia patients in India,” Prof Verma said.
A survey conducted in the city shows nearly eight per cent of Kolkata's population are carriers of such haemoglobin disorders, which is comparatively higher than other metros of India. Thus, Prof Verma requested Indian Council of Medical Research and the department of Biotechnology to increase the awareness programme in the city.
Meanwhile, Dr VR Rao, director in-charge, Anthropological Survey of India, said even after 50 years of detection of the disease by Dr JB Chatterjee in Kolkata, the city lacks the infrastructure for DNA test which happens to be the only method to identify thalassaemia in human body. Thus, Kolkatans have to depend on cities like New Delhi and Mumbai for this test, which becomes expensive and the report also gets delayed.
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