Prevalence of structural haemoglobin variants in malaria endemic states of northeast India
Purpose: The northeastern region of India is the homeland of people with diverse ethnicity and cultural entity. Malaria is still a major public health problem of the region. Prevalence of structural variants of haemoglobin of the inhabitants of malaria endemic northeastern region of India was evaluated.
Methods: The study cohort (n= 652) was the representative of seven ethnic groups of northeast India. Except the Tea Plantation Workers of Assam, rest of the study population was of mongoloid racial stalk. The average of last three consecutive years API and Pf % of the four study districts ranged from 0.04 to 67.31 and 38.29 to 76.84 % respectively. Blood samples were collected in EDTA and presence of haemoglobin variants was detected by Variant Hemoglobin Testing System (Bio Rad).
Results/Conclusion: Wide variation of gene frequency for βE –globin, ranging from 0.006 to 0.569, was depicted in mongoloid racial stalks; i.e. Lisu (Yobin), Tangsa, Mishing, Deori, Debbarma (Tripuri) and Mizo tribes. However, βs - globin gene was restricted to the tea plantation workers of Assam with a gene frequency 0.090. The Tangsa’s (n=77), inhabited in a highly malaria endemic belt, exhibited a gene frequency of 0.084 for βE –globin gene. Irrespective to the haemoglobin type, 77.9% of Tangsa’s suffered from malaria in previous three years. However, no statistically significant difference was observed between haemoglobin type and malarial episodes. Low gene frequency (0.006) of βE –globin was also observed in Lisu (Yobin) tribe residing in a land lock area of Arunachal Pradesh at an altitude of 3,773 to 4,200 ft. βE- globin gene frequency was highest among Deorie’s (0.569) followed by Deb Barma (0.525) and Mishing (0.403). The present observation revealed the need of a systematic study, covering large sample size, in a malaria endemic belt to correlate the malaria hypothesis of βE- globin gene