Interaction of malaria and thalassemia

摘要

Malaria may exacerbate the detrimental effects from the blood disorder thalassemia, researchers have found. The discovery could help in the understanding and treatment of the poorly understood hereditary blood disease that affects thousands of individuals throughout Asia. Angela O'Donnell et al. studied the interactions of a severe form of β-thalassemia with malaria in Sri Lankan patients and found that individuals with β-thalassemia had more antibodies to two malaria species than healthy controls, and tended to have worse symptoms of β-thalassemia.