Thalassemia in Iran in Last Twenty Years: the Carrier Rates and the Births Trend

Background: Iran is one of the countries located on “the thalassemia belt” with a significant annual number of thalassemia new births. Given the importance of thalassemia prevention, a program to this effect was approved in Iran in 1995. Screening of carrier couples and prenatal diagnosis were the two main elements of this program. In the present study, the authors have tried to address the impacts of prevention efforts in Iran (1989-2009) and also the status of new birth cases of thalassemia during the time period ranging from 1989 when the Iranian Thalassemia Society was established to 1995 when the prevention program started to run. Materials and Method: The data were obtained from the countrywide haemovigilance network. The data were then compared against the available information in the thalassemia treatment network of Iran and some other thalassemia associations. The available information had been collected through questionnaires and in some cases by phone calls and emails. Results: The findings show that the average thalassemia carrier prevalence rate in the country is about 4% and the thalassemia prevention in Iran has been successful with the number of new born thalassemic patients falling from 1087 cases in 1989 to 239 in 2009. The success rate of the program was evaluated to be 82.3% in 2009. Conclusion: The results show that the thalassemia prevention program has played an effective role in lowering thalassemia births in Iran. Nonetheless, the still high number of new thalassemia cases in the year 2009 is worth considering Keywords: Prevention of thalassemia, Iran, thalassemia, thalassemia carrier rate, success rate, screening, prenatal diagnosis.