Prevalence of Deletional Alpha Thalassemia and Sickle Gene in a Tribal Dominated Malaria Endemic Area of Eastern India

Abstract

Inherited hemoglobin disorders like alpha thalassemia and sickle gene are common in the Indian subcontinent. These disorders in the heterozygous state act as malaria resistance genes and influence the susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. There is inadequate knowledge about the epidemiology of these malaria resistance genes in the tribal dominated malaria endemic region of the state of Odisha in eastern India. A cross sectional prevalence study was undertaken in 594 subjects in five tribal populations in this region, namely, Sahara (42.4%), Kutia Kandha (30.0%), Kuda (15.8%), Gond (9.8%), and Oraon (2.0%). Sickling test, Hb electrophoresis, HPLC, and molecular studies were undertaken to diagnose the prevalence of sickle allele, β-thalassemia allele, and deletional alpha thalassemia. Sickle and β thalassemia alleles were found in 13.1% and 3.4% of subjects, respectively. Sickle allele was found both in heterozygous (10.1%) and homozygous state (3.03%). The prevalence of alpha thalassemia was 50.84% with an allelic frequency of 0.37. Both α −3.7 and α −4.2 alpha thalassemia were detected with an allele frequency of 0.33 and 0.04, respectively. The high prevalence of alpha thalassemia and sickle gene in this population is probably due to selection pressure of endemic malaria in this part of India.

Comparison of gene mutation spectrum of thalassemia in different regions of China and Southeast Asia

“…In addition to Chinese people, Indians were also a large immigrant group in Southeast Asia (Wu, ), which also made an impact on thalassemia mutation spectrum in Southeast Asia. The most frequent allele of α‐thalassemia in Indians was –α 3.7( Purohit, Dehury, Patel, & Patel, ), which was observed in Malaysians as well. As for β‐thalassemia, IVS‐I‐5 (G → C), Codon 15 (G → A), and Codon 30 (G → C), which were common in India (Edison et al, ), were also seen in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.…”

Mortality Risk Factors in Hospitalised Late Adolescent and Adult Sickle Cell Disease Patients

“…High prevalence of sickle cell haemoglobinopathy is seen in western Odisha ranging from 5 to 30%. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research situated in Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha, caters treatment to majority of complicated cases and houses the nodal centre of Odisha Sickle Cell Project sponsored by National Health Mission, Government of Odisha, India, with state of art molecular biology laboratory. Presently, cases of sickle cell disease and trait registered at the nodal centre exceeds 16,000 and 19,000, respectively.…”

Identification of the hot-spot areas for sickle cell disease using cord blood screening at a district hospital: an Indian perspective

“…The prevalence of sickle cell disease in a community survey was found to be 3.03 % in the State of Odisha (Purohit et al 2014) and is reported to vary among different populations within Odisha (Balgir 2000;Balgir 2005). This could be due to difference in founder effect, genetic drift, and practice of endogamy (Rudan et al 2006).…”