RESUMO
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.