Survey of incidence of thalassemia in Huizhou Area

Objective To survey the prevalence of thalassemia in Huizhou area. Methods U.S. Helena company's SPIFE rapid automatic electrophoresis system was used for performing hemoglobin electrophoresis. Results Among the 4 877 newborns 369 of them were detected as thalassemia carriers with a positive rate of 7.57%. The positive rates of α-Thal , β-Thal and hemoglobinopathy were 7.2% (351/4877), 0.06% (3/4877) and 0.31% (15/4877). Among the 6 020 adults deteted 607 of them were thalassemia carriers with a positive rate of 10.08% , inclduing α - Thal, β -Thal and hemoglobinopathy with the positive rates of 1.06% (64/6020), 8.57% (516/6020), and 0.45% (27/6020), respectively. There were totally 10 897 people were detected and 967 thalassemia carriers were detected with a positive rate of 8.96% . Conclusion The incidence of thalassemia is high in HuiZhou area and it is of great significance of conducting large scale screening, premarital health checkup as well ad prenatal and postnatal care .