Beta Thalassemia

Thalassemias are a precise group of inherited disorders of blood having one prevalent feature. It is the imperfect production of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a major protein of blood that carries oxygen from lungs to organs of the body and carries back the carbon dioxide to lungs again for exhaling from the body. If there is inadequacy of hemoglobin in body, thalassemia occurs. There are different types of defective hemoglobin and multiple types of disorders are found as blood disorders, so are the types of thalassemia.

The most common type of thalassemia is beta thalassemia. It is occurred due to inadequate production for hemoglobin of adult type (Hb A ) since birth till the dealth of the affected person. Hemoglobin has two major parts heme and globin. The globin part of Hb A has 4-protein section which is known as polypeptide chains.

Two chains out of four chains are termed as alpha chain because of their identical similarity. The other two chains are identical but different in configurationthan alpphas thus called as beta chains. The person suffering from beta-thalassemia suffers from inadequate production of hemoglobin in the beta chain of globin portion and thus the thalassemia type is named as beta thalassemia.

Two types of thalassemias are found commonly and these two versions are thalassemia major, and thalassemia minor.

Thalassemia minor is comparatively a manageable disease where the hemoglobin in blood count remains lower than a normal person and the patients of this disease suffer from slightly low immunity. Although there is a constant deficiency of hemoglobin, no specific treatment is required for this disease.

Thalassemia major is a serious disease. The child born with this disease has two genes, one for beta thalassemia and beta chain gene with some anomaly. The child remains homozygous for beta thalassemia and this anomaly of beta chain causes prominent discrepancy in beta chain and in Hb A production.

Initially the child affected by thalassemia major seems to be normal. However, the problem starts from the first month after the birth and gradually becomes severe. The newborn fails to take normal food, normal breathing, and suffers from major discomfort due to inadequate supply for oxygen. The baby starts suffering from major anemia and problems like diarrhea and serious intestinal disorders due to low immunity and digestive ability.

Apart from medication, blood transfusion is the way to treat the patients of thalassemia major. Gene therapy can be arranged in later stage.