types of anemia of middle east
The two main groups of thalassemia are called alpha and beta. There are four types of alpha thalassemia and three types of beta thalassemia. Alpha thalassemia genes are found in Southeast Asians, blacks, and people originally from the Middle East. The disease affects the red blood cells in two ways. First the body cannot make enough cells with normal hemoglobin.
Beta thalassemia genes are more widespread -- found in Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and around the Mediterranean. Someone with only one of the beta genes will have beta thalassemia trait, a mild anemia in which the red cells are smaller than normal.
In the United Sates, sickle cell anemia affects tens of thousands of blacks, and variations of it are seen in whites of Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern and East Indian descent. Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying protein of red blood cells. In sickle cell anemia, abnormal blood cells turn rigid, assume a sickle shape and block vessels. The painful episodes associated with the disease are fewer among patients who have a naturally higher level of fetal hemoglobin, which normally diminishes as people age.