Thalassemia is Important Before Marriage

Thalassemia is red blood cell malformation (inherited) , leads to anemia due to hemoglobin disorder. Hemoglobin is a protein that carries oxygen , when the hemoglobin reduced cause abnormal body growth and effect on our brain . Because the oxygen that reaches to it is not enough.

Thalassemia is inherited that is meant . At least one of our parents must be carried mutated genes that involved of hemoglobin production.

Types of thalassemia:

Alpha thalassemia :

Happens when the gene involved in alpha globin protein is mutated, and occurs most often in Africa, the Middle Est, Southeast Asia and China.

Beta thalassemia :

Happens when the gene involved in beta globin protein is mutated, and occurred most often in people of Mediterranean origin.

Delta-thalassemia :

Happens when the gene that produced delta chain is mutated.

Alpha and Beta thalassemia includes two forms as follows:

Thalassemia major are usually happen by defective gene inheritance from both parents. If our children don't have treatment, they usually die between one and eight years of age.

Thalassemia minor (Cooley's anemia) that happens by defective gene inheritance from only one of the parents. Children with thalassemia minor do not appear on them any symptoms so, they called carriers of the disease.

Symptoms:

Babies born with thalassemia have anemia that developed to severe anemia at the first year . Fatigue, yellow skin, dark urine, headache, irritability, spleen enlargement, bone disorder, Zinc deficiency, weakness, abnormal swelling, irregular menses growth slowly and other symptoms of thalassemia that cause heart failure and death.

Diagnosis:

Thalassemia was diagnosed by complete blood picture test analysis by showing malformation of red blood cells through the microscope.

Treatment:

Thalassemia treatment often occurred by blood transfusions folate supplements, spleen surgery removal, Bone marrow transplant and Stem-cell transplant.

During treatment we should avoid vitamins and supplement's iron containing because we already have iron supply from blood transfusion . And that leads to a lot of iron amounts in our body.When the iron amount increased in our body . We need to chelation therapy that means removed extra iron from our body.

How can we prevent our children from getting thalassemia?

We can avoid this disease by before marriage tests' analysis, especially complete blood count (CBC), hemoglobin level, Hemoglobin electrophoresis and by know the family history of the disease.

Prenatal testes which done in 11th week of pregnancy by removal of a tiny part of the placenta and at 16th week of pregnancy by fluid surrounding fetus taking and analyzed.

Before Marriage and getting kids 

The marriage of a man and woman who are carriers of the disease, Makes the possibility of infecting their children with the disease are 30 when every child they bear him, which is very high, and injured him, breaks up the red blood cells in his blood by age is supposed to, the hemoglobin is too weak to do his job, which requires blood transfusions continued for the patient, and therefore increases the deposition of iron in many body parts, spleen, heart, and may cause failure, and can lead to death.