Thalassæmia in Melanesia

Abstract

THALASSÆMIA has previously been regarded as non-existent in Melanesians¹. In August 1960, a Papuan female from the Milne Bay area of New Guinea, aged 18–20 yr., was admitted to the General Hospital, Port Moresby, for re-investigation of a refractory anæmia first noticed during pregnancy in 1957. On that occasion she had been delivered of a full-term, apparently normal, infant, her hæmoglobin-level having been maintained by transfusions. Since discharge she had received no treatment and had been able to carry on normal village life, in spite of a hæmoglobin-level remaining fairly constant at 5–6 gm. per cent. Investigation in August 1960 showed typical bony changes, a hypochromic microcytic anæmia with target cells and normoblasts present in the peripheral blood, and the alkali denaturation test² showed 67 per cent undenatured hæmoglobin. The presence of hæmoglobin F as a major component was confirmed by hæmoglobin electrophoresis on cellulose acetate strips. Since then three other cases of thalassæmia major in Papuan children have been diagnosed, two of the children aged 5 yr. and 1.5 yr. came from the Kerema district, and one aged 3 yr. from the Oro Bay area in Papua.