Prevalence, Geographical Distribution, Social Problems and Treatment of Thalassemia Patients.

A total of 700 beta thalassemia patients were gathered at the outdoor of the Hematology department of Medical College, Kolkata, attending during the period from January 2010 to December 2010. The data is generated by the interaction between them and their family members in presence of the physicians. Actual ethnic identities, place of residence, parity and sibship together with social stigma, if any, faced by the patient or by the member of the family and details of their treatment including transfusion history were noted down and reconfirmed from past records. The prevalence of thalassemia was found 70% among Hindus of which the 62.26% was contributed by castes like Maishya, Namasudra, Barga Kshatriya and Panda Kshatriya. The relative prevalence of subtypes of b-thalassemia was found to be 65% E-b thalassemia, 30% Homozygous b-thalassemia and 5% S-b thalassemia. The aboard of the 85.28% patients were found to be localised along banks river Hooghly and Ganga delta region and we can thus consider tentatively that this belt is a thalassemia zone in West Bengal. The maximum number of cases showed parity to be 1 and there was considerable amount of reproductive wastage. Regarding social stigma, 82.71% responded with no stigma. Early diagnosis and early onset of transfusion with chelation therapy was found to provide benefit for the patient reducing the total amount of transfusion needed per year and also restoring the quality of their life.

Prevalence of Cataract Blindness in a Rural Puducherry.

Background: Globally there are 45 million people blind, 90% of these live in developing countries and more than 80% blindness is preventable or curable. In south-east asia, cataract is the single most common cause of blindness being responsible for 50-80% of all blindness. In India, 62.6% blindness is due to cataract. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of cataract blindness among rural population of more than 50 years of age in study area. To know the factors associated with cataract blindness. Materials & Methods: Using multistage cluster random sampling method, out of 5 commune panchayats in Puducherry district, Bahour commune panchayat was selected as primary sampling unit. Thereafter Seliamedu panchayat was selected out of 15 panchayats under the Bahour commune panchayat administrative area. House to house blindness survey was done in Seliamedu (all 5 villages). A person with vision less than 6/60 was considered as blind. Illumination was done to see the degenerative changes in lens, iris shadow. Results: Total 7410 population was covered, in which 11.6% were found eligible for the study. The calculated prevalence of cataract blindness was 10.8%. Increasing age, illiteracy, working status was associated with occurrence of cataract. Conclusion: Further detailed studies are needed to see the actual burden of blindness due to various causes in community for effective planning and to attain the global objective of vision 2020.