Molecular epidemiological characterization and health burden of thalassemia in Jiangxi Province, P. R. China

Background Thalassemia is the most common inherited disease in southern China. However, this disorder is usually ignored by Jiangxi provincial health system and government due to lack of epidemiological data. Materials and Methods A total of 9489 samples from Hakka Han and Gan-speaking Han in three geographical areas of Jiangxi Province were analyzed for both complete blood cell (CBC) count and reverse dot blot (RDB) gene chip for thalassemia. Results 1182 cases of suspected thalassemia carriers with microcytosis (MCV