Anemia and hemoglobinopathies in tribal population of Eastern and North-eastern India

Abstract

It is estimated that out of approximately 31.4 million people living in North-eastern India, about 8.1 million are tribal people of the hills and plains. Among four of the seven north-eastern states, tribal people are in majority. Arunachal Pradesh is made of approximately 24 major tribal groups, which constitute about 70% of the total population, Tripura 29% and in Assam constitutes 11%. A total of 1726 cases were randomly selected in this study, out of which 1263 cases were from North-east India, namely from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura and the rest were from West Bengal. Hematological parameters were estimated and agarose gel electrophoresis for identification of the Hb variants was performed. DNA was isolated, amplified and analysed by PCR-ARMS technology. The incidence of anemia among the tribal people of Assam was 59.82%, in Arunachal Pradesh 53.77% and Tripura 57.45%. The presence of hemoglobinopathies and thalassemia account for anemia in a sizeable population of the north-eastern states in certain tribes and urgent health resources are needed to deal with this. HbE appears to be the commonest hemoglobin among the different tribes of north-east.

A community based pilot study on prevalence of hemoglobinopathies among the antenatal women in a rural area of Darjeeling district, West Bengal

“…Prevalence of HbE trait was found to be highest amongst all the hemoglobinopathies. Increased occurrence of HbE in this area is similar to found in Assam and Tripura [8,12] hinting at lineage simulation between the Rajbanshis and these states. Hill tribes, mainly Adivasis, also showed a high HbE occurrence, thus indicating intra racial marriages with Rajbanshis and acculturation.…”

Present scenario of hemoglobinopathies in West Bengal, India: An analysis of a large population

“…[17] Another study with 1726 cases on hemoglobinopathies in tribal population of Eastern and Northeastern India, including 463 cases from West Bengal showed the prevalence of β-thalassemia carrier of 5.18%. [18] Worldwide, hemoglobin E thalassemia is one of the most important varieties of hemoglobinopathy. [11] There were 1403 cases of HbE trait leading to a prevalence of 2.78% in the study population.…”

Effect of hydroxyurea on the transfusion requirements in patients with severe HbE-β-thalassaemia: a genotypic and phenotypic study

“…HbE is the hallmark of Southeast Asia, with a large number of cases of HbE-β-thalassaemia, found particularly in eastern India, that behave like thalassaemia intermedia or thalassaemia major 2 16. These patients generally present later in life than patients with β-thalassaemia major, and, if untransfused, have severe anaemia.…”