Prevalence of β-thalassemic patients associated with consanguinity and anti-HCV - Antibody positivity - A cross sectional study

A cross sectional study was carried out at various hospitals of faisalabad city. the aim of current study was to investigate the prevalence of β-thalassemia disease in hospital population related to age,consanguinity and anti-hcv antibody positivity. for this purpose,300 patients were interviewed for the different parameters including specific type of β-thalassemia disease,their family history together with information about their sibs and offspring. results demonstrated that males were significantly (p<0.001) more affected than females. in total hospital population,β-thalassemia major (97%) was more frequent than thalassemia intermedia (7%). the highest representation of β-thalassemic patients (34.33%) was observed between 3-5 years of age groups,whereas affected patients were the highest from 1st birth order (32.90%) and the lowest from 8 th birth order (0.64%). the prevalence of anti-hcv antibodies positivity was 65.0% among all β-thalassemic patients. distribution of β-thalassemia patients among different surnames showed the highest percentage in rajpoots (25.62%) and lowest in baloach (3.30%). in consanguine studies,outcome of first cousin marriages result was higher β-thalassemia affliction than in unrelated outcomes. the coefficient of inbreeding among parents of β-thalassemic patient (f=0.0455) was also observed high. in conclusion,higher total consanguinity rate and coefficient of inbreeding among thalassemic patients indicated genetic basis of the disease. however,higher anti-hcv positivity among patients reflects the poor facilities of transfusion. copyright 2011 zoological society of pakistan.