This darkens the skin and causes symptoms such as fatigue, arthritis and chronic infections. Left untreated, it can lead to liver cirrhosis, heart failure, diabetes, even cancer. Specialists say doctors often fail to diagnose hemochromatosis in time. The only way to treat the disease is by blood-letting. A half-litre of blood is removed each week from the patient, until the iron levels return to normal.
Doctors say it's the only way to get rid of excess iron.
Doctors at the Centre want to diagnose hemochromatosis as early as possible. They hope to use a new genetic test to screen people. Dr. Adams and his colleagues recently tested more than 5,000 blood donors in the London area. One in 10 was found to be a carrier for hemochromatosis, a number much higher than researchers expected. Not all carriers of the gene defect suffer from the disease, and scientists still aren't able to predict which carriers are most likely to develop hemochromatosis.