Thalassaemia is an inherited disease that is caused when there are mutations or a missing gene that affects how haemoglobin is produced. Haemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body.

Thalassaemia
Thalassaemia is an inherited disease that is caused when there are mutations or a missing gene that affects how haemoglobin is produced. Haemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body.
If you have thalassaemia, it means you don’t have enough red blood cells, and therefore do not produce enough haemoglobin; this could result in either mild or severe anaemia.
Haemoglobin is made up of four polypeptide chains, two alpha globin and two beta globin. If you have alpha thalassaemia, this means that you have a mutation with your alpha chains: you can either have minor (a) or major (b)
Alpha
To make enough alpha globin protein chains, you inherit two genes (one from each parent). Alpha Thalassaemia occurs when one or more of these genes are missing or have been mutated, the severity of the disease depends on how many of the genes are missing/mutated.

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