Managing thalassemia in the developing world: an evidence-based approach for prevention, transfusion independency, and curative treatment with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Abstract

Pakistan is among the countries with a high prevalence of β-thalassemia, with a β-thalassemia gene frequency of 5% to 8% and ∼5000 new cases diagnosed each year. In Pakistan, the mean annual expenditure for managing disease in a child with thalassemia is US$4500, which is much more than the per