It is high time to recognise the importance of raising awareness about thalassemia, its causes, and more importantly, to drive home the fact that it is preventable, said Veena Akkineni,pediatric hemato-oncologist, at Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Vijayawada.

Nearly 5 crore Indians are silent carriers of the beta-thalassemia gene. Unless an individual goes for screening at a dedicated thalassemia screening centre, their status will not be known, the doctor said in a release issued on Thursday in connection with the World Thalassemia Day on Friday (May 8).

According to the release, in South Indian communities, where the practice of consanguineous marriages is very common, the risk of contracting the disease is high.

When carrier genes already run within a family, the probability of both partners being carriers rises sharply. When two carriers marry, every pregnancy carries a 25% risk of producing a child with thalassemia major. While the parents may lead normal lives despite being carriers, their children may be burdened with lifelong suffering.

Their suffering can be prevented by a blood test called HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography)/ HbA2 analysis. The test is recommended for all couples in close-relation or consanguineous marriages, for those planning a family, all pregnant women during the first trimester, husbands of pregnant women confirmed as thalassemia carriers, siblings and close relatives of known thalassemia patients and families and communities with a history of consanguineous marriages.

Whenever a child is diagnosed with thalassemia, all siblings and close relatives must be tested, she said, adding that a child should not suffer lifelong for a condition that could have been identified with one simple blood test.