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

Background: Hemoglobin disorders are the leading health concern in the World including India. Effective screeningprograms, awareness campaign and proper prenatal diagnosis are the only ways to eradicate the disease. Verysparse data are available on the spectrum of haemoglobinopathies in the central part of Gujarat state. Hence, thisstudy was undertaken to find out the prevalence of haemoglobinopathies among the students of Anand People’sMedicare Society, Anand District, Gujarat, India.Methods: In this prospective study, total 2195 students were screened for haemoglobinopathies after takingclinical and familial history. A complete hemogram report was obtained by an automated hematology counterand hemoglobin variants were quantitated by performing HPLC on Bio-Rad Variant II. The prevalence ofhemoglobinopathies was 7.06%, which includes β-thalassemia trait (2.73 %), sickle cell trait (3.82%), homozygoussickle 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 premaritalscreening program, awareness and education for identification, prevention of high-risk marriages and birth ofthalassemic homozygotes.