Prevalence of Haemoglobinopathy among Young College Students in Anand-Gujarat: A Premarital Screening Program for Carrier Detection of Hemoglobin Disorders

Abstract

Background: Hemoglobin disorders are the leading health concern in the World including India. Effective screening
programs, awareness campaign and proper prenatal diagnosis are the only ways to eradicate the disease. Very
sparse data are available on the spectrum of haemoglobinopathies in the central part of Gujarat state. Hence, this
study was undertaken to find out the prevalence of haemoglobinopathies among the students of Anand People’s
Medicare Society, Anand District, Gujarat, India.
Methods: In this prospective study, total 2195 students were screened for haemoglobinopathies after taking
clinical and familial history. A complete hemogram report was obtained by an automated hematology counter
and hemoglobin variants were quantitated by performing HPLC on Bio-Rad Variant II. The prevalence of
hemoglobinopathies was 7.06%, which includes β-thalassemia trait (2.73 %), sickle cell trait (3.82%), homozygous
sickle cell disease (0.09%), Hb D trait (0.22%), Hb E (0.09%) trait and other haemoglobinopathies (0.08%).
Conclusion: Population groups with high gene frequency of haemoglobinopathies requires a routine premarital
screening program, awareness and education for identification, prevention of high-risk marriages and birth of
thalassemic homozygotes.