Survival of medically treated Thalassaemia patients in Sri Lanka (2008 – 2016).

Abstract

Thalassaemia is what is called an inherited disease due to abnormal hemoglobin production. It’s not an infectious disease. Sri Lanka is identified as an intermediate prevalence of thalassaemia. Near to 3500 patients with thalassaemia lives in Sri Lanka. Earlier there was no proper treatment for thalassaemia due to lack of knowledge about it. This cause to limit these patients life to 10-15 years. Today with the development of health sector researches found that life expectancy of patients have been improved. The survival measures and factors that affect to survival thalassaemia patients in Sri Lanka is unclear. The main objective of the study is to identify the main factors cause to death from thalassaemia. This include the number of deaths among the period and causes. Moreover this study tries to identify trends and risks on thalassaemia. Relevant data collected from a main thalassaemia hospital located in Ragama from the year 2008 to 2016. The results reveal that the patients mainly died not by thalassaemia. Thalassaemia major patients have more risk to death than thalassaemia minor and other diseases. Iron chelation therapy is the main problem among thalassaemia patients. Hospitals should provide homely environment for the patients to do their therapies happily. Though there are merits, some limitations are also exist with the research.