Report Ms Endang

NAME : NURFADHILAH BINTI AB RANI ID NO : 012008050717 GROUP : MARA C REPORT : THALASSEMIA On Tuesday, 20 January 2009, a talk about Thalassemia was given by Dato’ Dr. Zulkifli bin Ismail. He is also the President of Malaysia Thalassemia Association. The other persons attending this talk were the members of the association, also the Thalassemia patients and Thalassemia carrier. This talk was held at Hall F, Block C, MSU campus. It was started at almost 11.00a.m. and end at about 12.45a.m. after a few quiz session. Dato’ Dr Zulkifli b Ismail is a doctor who has a very good communicating skills. He can interact with the audience well. For example, he took the audience attention by asking generally about the Thalassemia at the beginning of his talk. Later on, he explains about the Thalassemia disease with confidence without having any problems answering questions given by the audience. He also has a lot of knowledge about the disease and well prepared to give the talk. For the persons that are aiming to become a doctor, Dato’ Dr Zulkifli b Ismail is a very good role model for them. Thalassemia is a common disease nowadays to people worldwide including to the students. However, due to the lack of knowledge about this disease, people commonly ignore this kind of disease although the percentage of the carrier is 3-5% of the population. From this knowledgeable talk, students were exposed to the disease in details. First of all, Thalassemia is all about inherited blood disease. It is due to the less of hemoglobin in the patient’s blood. For a normal person, red blood cells’ (RBC’s) life span is approximately 120 days. For a Thalassemia patient, his RBC’s are paler than normal RBC’s because of lack number of Hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the pigment in RBC that is responsible for carry oxygen for cell respiration. Lack of Hemoglobin will cause the person to look pale, weak and lethargic. Apart from that, the life span of RBCs for the patient is less than 120 days. Thalassemia can be divided into two categories which is Alpha and Beta Thalassemia. During this talk, the doctor focuses on the Alpha-type Thalassemia. This type of Thalassemia is being divided into three sub-types which are Thalassemia major, Thalassemia intermedia and Thalassemia minor. These types of Thalassemia can results in Anemia. Among these three types of Alpha Thalassemia, the doctor talked about Thalassemia major. Thalassemia major is the most critical among other types of Thalassemia. Signs and symptoms of Thalassemia major can be detected since the young age of 3-4 months. One of the symptoms is the children look pale and lethargic. Besides, the children also experience the enlargement of their abdomen. Moreover, Thalassemia can also be detected when liver and

spleen enlargement occurred to a child. If the children do not get appropriate treatment, they will die before the age of 2. There are two diagnoses that can be done to detect this disease. The first method is by clinical observations. Through this method, Thalassemia is suspected if the children are pale, lethargic and weak. Besides, through clinical observation, the Thalassemia patient also experience heart failure with rapid heartbeat. The other diagnosis is by doing blood test. When a person is detected for having Thalassemia, his family and relatives are also advised to take the diagnosis. Fortunately, Thalassemia can be treated. The treatment is by blood transfusion. This blood transfusion is being given once in 3-4 weeks. Blood transfusion is given is to ensure the normal growth and normal level of activity for the children besides giving normal facial features. However, there are some problems regarding blood transfusion. For example is the probability of getting infections such as HIV, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis C are high. Besides, the side effects of blood transfusion are iron overload in liver, kidney, brain (especially pituitary gland) and pigmentation of skin. The method of preventing iron overload is by iron chelation using desferoxamine. Desferoxamine can be taken in by injection. It requires infusion under the skin over 8 hours and 5 nights a week. Besides desferoxamine, there are a few types of oral chelating agents such as deferiprone, deferasirox and others. The common question about a disease is can the disease be cured? The same question also being asked for Thalassemia. The answer is yes. It can be cured only by bone marrow transplantation. Normally, the donor is from the patient’s close relative. In others, the only treatment for Thalassemia is blood transfusion and chelation. As the conclusion, Thalassemia is not a type of cancer. It is also not a disability. Furthermore, major patients are capable for the normal life if they are given chances. The most important about Thalassemia is neither infectious nor contagious. Hence, Thalassemia patients should not be discriminated from the community.