[Lack of knowledge of being minor thalasemic is the main cause of major thalassemia incidence in Zahedan, the South-East of Iran]

Introduction: In spite of providing prenatal diagnoses [PND] procedures for Thalassemia, 148 new patients were added to the Thalassemic population of Zahedan from 2002 to 2010. This study aimed at identifying the occurrence causes of newly arrived Thalassemic patients

Methods: This retrospective descriptive study was carried out on 148 couples whose Thalassemic children were born after establishment of the PND center at 2002. The required data were collected using interviews and hospital records of the patients

Results: The results indicated that 81.6% of the parents of major cases had not undergone pre-marriage Thalassemia screening test. Also, 70.2% of the couples were not aware of their minor Thalassemia before having a Thalassemic child. Moreover, 71% of parents who had been diagnosed with minor Thallasemia did not attend the PND center due to lack of knowledge, late gestational age, husband's unwillingness, and lack of awareness about the importance of the problem. In addition, from the referred couples in the first stage, 50% did not come to the centre for second stage of diagnosis [sampling of the fetus] due to religious beliefs, husband's unwillingness, and mothers' ignorance

Conclusion: The results showed that the most important causes of new occurrences of Thalassemia include couples' refraining from taking pre-marriage Thalassemia screening tests and lack of knowledge about being minor thalassemic. Therefore, appropriate programs may hopefully reduce the new cases

290-base-pair deletion in the beta-globin gene causing B-thalassemia in Syria

A 290-bp deletion in the 5 region of the beta-globin gene is described for the first time in a Syrian family leading to beta-thalassaemia major in homozygous from