The prevalence of thalassemia varies by region, but experts estimate that up to 5% of the world’s population carry a gene for alpha-thalassemia, while about 1.5% carry a gene for beta-thalassemia.

Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder that impacts the ability of the blood to get oxygen to the body’s organs. Learn about the signs, how it’s diagnosed & treated.

But children with alpha- or beta-thalassemia disease may experience anemia and problems with the bones and organs. Symptoms of pediatric thalassemia usually develop in infancy or young childhood.

Beta thalassemia describes a condition of the blood characterized by abnormal hemoglobin in the red blood cells. This abnormal hemoglobin is reduced in its capacity to transport oxygen around the ...

Alpha-globin and beta-globin protein chains make up hemoglobin. Changes in the alpha- or beta-globin genes that provide instructions for these proteins can lead to thalassemia.

Mutations in the beta-globin gene cause sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. But humans have another hemoglobin subunit gene (gamma-globin), which is expressed during fetal development ...

Gamma-globin combines with alpha-globin to form HbF. Normally around birth, gamma-globin expression is turned off and beta-globin is turned on, resulting in a switch from HbF to adult hemoglobin.

Most people with thalassemia minor (alpha or beta) do not develop fatigue due to anemia, as the anemia is quite mild. If you have fatigue with exercise, I’d be concerned that you have more than ...