Thalassemia | Thalassaemia
In medical terminology, thalassaemia is an inherited disease of the red blood cells and it is medically classified as hemoglobinopathy. For those who may not know, thalassaemia is a medical disease whereby there is genetic defect in a human body and therefore resulted in a synthesis of an abnormal hemoglobin molecule. With the synthesis of an abnormal hemoglobin molecule, the blood cells will become vulnerable to mechanical injuries and therefore, die easily.
Generally, Thalassaemia can be classified into two categories based on the globin molecule which is affected and these two categories are the alpha (α) thalassaemia and the beta (β) thalassaemia. For the alpha (α) thalassaemia, the production of the alpha (α) globin is deficient and as for the beta (β) thalassaemia, the production of the beta (β) globin is deficient. For the (α) thalassaemia and as well as the (β) thalassaemia, they are actually the same where both of the thalassaemia are inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion. Both of the parents must be carriers of the thalassaemia in order for their new born child to be affected. On top of that, if both of the parents are carriers, there is a 25% of chance where each pregnant child will be infected with thalassaemia. This is considered as relatively severe as one child out of four children will be infected with thalassaemia.
For being a carrier to the thalassaemia, the carrier may as well has a certain degree of protection against malaria and in addition to that, this is quite common among people from the Italian and as well as Greek origin since in the early days, malaria was widespread within those countries. For someone who is infected with thalassaemia, he or she may need to undergo regular blood transfusions as it is the only way to survive.
