How does thalassemia affect the quality of life: can patients with thalassemia major have children?
In thalassemia major the blood which is produced is less in amount and poor in quality. These children are severely anemic; they must receive regular blood transfusion. This exposes them to a number of diseases including hepatitis, AIDS and iron overload. Their abnormal facial features, dark complexion, stunted growth, distended abdomen etc. make them handicapped in more than one ways. These children are sexually underdeveloped and many of them die in early childhood or during adolescence. Those who are “perfectly” managed, as in some of the developed countries, reach adulthood and they get married. Children of patients with thalassemia major will all have thalassemia minor provided that the spouse does not have the thalassemia gene. If two “well” treated persons with thalassemia major get married, all of their children will have thalassemia major. Increased iron absorption causes accumulation of iron, first in the Kupffer cells of the liver and in the RE cells of the spleen and later
