Sickle Cell Anaemia is an inherited disease, which lowers haemoglobin levels making it difficult for red blood cells to carry oxygen to various parts of the body. High incidence of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is seen in the tribal people of combined Visakhapatnam district.
An overall incidence of around 18% SCD was seen among tribal patients coming to the King George Hospital (KGH), according to studies done in the past, says Dr. C.V. Lakshmi, HoD (Pathology), Andhra Medical College (AMC). The homozygous SCD cases exhibit symptoms like shortness of breath and fever, while heterozygous cases, which have less than 50% sickle cell Hb, are asymptomatic. The symptoms are detected though a sickling test, she says.
“We have found high incidence of SCD in the tribal areas followed by Scheduled Caste people, living in long-term malaria-endemic regions. When a man and his wife are both SCD patients, one-fourth of their children will inherit the disease,” says Prof. G. Paddaiah, an Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics Department of Andhra University, who had conducted a study along with Prof. P. Sudhakar, HoD of Human Genetics Department.
“Haemoglobinopathies are a cause for concern for not only their affect on the quality of life of patients but also due to their inheritance patterns. Tribal population of Visakhapatnam district has a high chance of inheriting haemoglobinopathies due to their culture of consanguineous marriage,” says Dr. A. Bhagyalakshmi, former Vice-Principal and former HoD of Pathology, AMC.
Dr. Bhagyalakshmi had led an observational study conducted in the Department of Pathology, AMC, over a period of 10 months from August 2020 to June 2021. A total of 151 cases with suspected haemoglobinopathies, their parents and siblings were screened. The study revealed that 67 cases (44.37%) were asymptomatic and 84 (55.62%) were symptomatic. The most common symptoms were fever and dyspnoea.
The results of the study titled: “A clinical-haemotological study of hereditary haemoglobinoapthies: a tertiary care centre experience” were published by the International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences in August 2021. The most common haemoglobinopathy, detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was the sickle cell trait, followed by sickle cell anaemia, according to the study.
The study concluded that endemic areas for haemoglobinopathies have to be screened with HPCL along with complete hemogram in suspicious cases for better diagnosis and management of the condition. Heterozygous state of haemoglobinopathies need special attention for diagnosis, due to the high frequency of carriers and normal hemogram picture.
