Prevalence of Beta thalassemia trait and Hb E trait in Bangladeshi school children and health burden of thalassemia in our population

This study was done to determine the prevalence of Beta thalassemia trait and Hb E trait in school children of Bangladesh and calculate the health burden of thalassemia. Haemoglobin Electrophoresis was done on blood collected from 735 school children from all six divisions of Bangladesh. Over all prevalence of Beta thalassemia trait was 4.1% and Haemoglobin E trait was 6.1% in Bengali school children. The prevalence of beta thalassemia trait in Bengali school children in Barisal Division was 8.1% which was the highest followed by Rajshahi division 5.5%,Sylhet Division 5.2%,Dhaka Division 3.2%,Chittagong 2.9%, and Khulna Division 2.4%. In tribal school children of Chitagong the prevalence rate of beta trait was 4.2%. Prevalence of Hb E trait was 16.5% in Rajshahi Division which was highest in Bengali school children followed by Barisal with prevalence of 8.1%,Dhaka 5.2%, Sylhet 4.2%,Chittagonmg 2.9% and Khulna 2.4%. Prevalence of Hb E trait was 41.7% in tribal school children. Calculated value of the expected births of beta thalassemia major annually in our country is 1,040 and Hb E Beta thalassemia is 6,443. Prevalence of both beta thalassemia trait and Hb E trait is significantly high in Bangladesh and thalassemia will be a major genetic problem in the coming years.