Maxx Brown
First Block
5/9/12
Why is there so little public information on Thalassemia, and who is responsible for disseminating it?
Why does the CDC not take Thalassemia serious like other disease such as Aids, Cancer and sickle cell anemia? It affects people’s lives just as greatly as Aids, Cancer, and Sickle cell. Thalassemia puts many people in danger, and many doctors are clueless to what Thalassemia is. Nevertheless, the CDC is not spreading the word on how to treat Thalassemia; I think that they should consider this disease dangerous. Anemia, leg ulcers, and low iron are major compilations for Thalassemia and they can be very deadly.
Thalassemia, a blood disease that happens all over the world, which all starts by a mutation in gene coding that, alters protein output. There are two types of Thalassemia Beta and Alpha. There are 23 known mutations for Alpha Thalassemia, but for beta, there are over 200 known mutations. Beta Thalassemia contracts through heterogeneous genes. Thalassemia mostly affects the people in the Mediterranean region, parts of north and West Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Southern Far East and Southeastern Asia, together composing the so-called Thalassemia belt. In western countries, Thalassemia mostly affects individuals whose ancestries are traceable.
Awareness for thalassemia needs to happen, thalassemia is not just a disease but it can lead to depression. My sister who has thalassemia was in a state of depression just from being in and out of the hospital, which causes stress for the patient. If the CDC spreads awareness about thalassemia maybe, some doctor could find a cure for thalassemia. So why does the CDC not spread information because it is not a more popular disease.
I can prove that there is a lack of information for thalassemia, as I observed the survey results it really showed me that know body knew about thalassemia. Only one person that I talked to had information about thalassemia, but he used to work in the medical field. My survey asked if they thought that thalassemia should be talked about more and all of the survey takers said that it should be talked about more.
Thalassemia will continue to increase and in my opinion will become a major problem for years to come, but if the CDC does not spread awareness around then there will be problems. There is nothing different with other diseases such as aids, and cancer there is just more of an occurrence of the other diseases. However, study’s say that there will be a major increase in the occurrences of thalassemia in the next twenty years.
Should the CDC spread more awareness or should they leave the disease under the radar. Just from a personal standpoint, thalassemia can really be a horrible disease, but still to this day people fail to realize it is. This is my belief that thalassemia should be considered a deadly disease and that it should be thought more about. The CDC should spread the awareness to stop all of this chaos.
