Prevalence of Thalassemia Carriers in Thailand

บทคัดย่อ

Abstract:

Prevalence of three types of thalassemia carrier associated with severe thalassemia
syndromes, namely carriers of Southeast-Asian type alpha-thalassemia 1, beta-thalassemia, hemoglobin
E, and homozygous hemoglobin E were determined in 3,445 expecting couples from 9 public health
areas in Thailand during a 6 months’ period from June to November 2004, using the microcolumn Hb
A2/E quantitation and polymerase chain reaction for Southeast-Asian type alpha-thalassemia 1. The
prevalence of thalassemia is high in all area. The prevalence of hemoglobin E carriers is higher than
previously reported. Calculated from the gene frequencies, the northern population is at the highest
risk for having offspring with severe thalassemia, followed by the northeastern, eastern, central and the
southern respectively.