Hemoglobin (Hb) D Punjab is one of the most commonly observed abnormal hemoglobinopathy worldwide. There was no systematic large published study to investigate the characteristic of Hb D Punjab trait in India. This study was conducted in school and college students, newly married couples and pregnant women after proper counseling in the rural areas of West Bengal state in eastern India. Complete blood count was done by Sysmax Automated Hematology Analyzer KX 21 (Sysmex Corp., Kobe, Japan) and thalassemia testing was done using high-performance liquid chromatography (Variant TM -Bio-Rad Lab., Hercules, CA, USA). A total of 46,139 individuals were screened for hemoglobinopathies. Hb D trait was found in 0.35%. Hypochromia rather than microcytosis is consistent finding in Hb D trait. Anisocytosis is absent in Hb D trait. In almost all (99.37%) cases, Hb D is within 40% of total hemoglobin. This data is likely to be helpful for screening of hemoglobinopathy in resource poor setting.

Hemoglobinopathies, common genetic disorders of hemoglobin, can be prevented by population screening and genetic counseling. Identification of these disorders is immensely important epidemiologically and aid in prevention of more serious hemoglobin disorders. Thalassemia is the commonest monogenic disorder in India, which belongs to the thalassemia belt of the world. The present study was undertaken to find out the characteristics of -thalassemia trait and spectrum of this disorder among the rural population, screened under the hospital-based screening program in West Bengal, a state in eastern part of India. This study was carried out in school and college students, newly married couples and pregnant women after proper counseling in the rural areas of five southern districts of this state. Blood samples were tested by high-performance liquid chromatography. Total 1429 -thalassemia traits were detected by random screening from this population. The mean value of HbA 2 of the study population, having -thalassemia trait is 4.9%. The prevalence (10.5%) of -thalassemia trait in West Bengal is higher than other parts of the country. These data are likely to help us in future planning for screening programmes in rural areas of West Bengal, India.