Blood Problems From Birth

Some babies are born with very low haemoglobin and there are many reasons for this.
Many a time this may be something the baby got from its parents, due to defective genes.

If both parents have some gene defects the baby may get a serious problem.

Some examples are Sickle cell anemia and Thalassemia both are common in India.
These only exist in some communities and affect many generations in the family.
The other type of blood problems which can run in families are Haemophilia, von Willebrand disease, Glanzmanns disease, Spherocytosis, G6PD deficiency and many rarer problems.

These hereditary disorders can be avoided to some extent if people do not marry very close relatives, also called consanguinous weddings.

In many communities these type of weddings still are common.

In South India some rare blood diseases happen just because the parents are closely related before marriage.

Sickle cell anemia is common in tribal (adivasi) populations of Nilgiris, Wayanad, western ghats and in many tribes of Odisha, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand etc.
Thalassemia is common in Parsis, Gujaratis, Sindhis, Punjabis etc.

In both these disorders, if one parent has a defective gene, the child is only mildly affected (heterozygous or carrier state).

If both parents have defective genes, the child gets severe problem and may not live normally (homozygous or severe state).