To determine the prevalence of G6PD deficiency and a Mediterranean mutation among males in southeastern Iran, we studied 1,097 Sistani and Balouch schoolboys. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and a history of malaria infection; blood samples were evaluated for G6PD deficiency and the G6PD Mediterranean mutation. Of the 1,097 boys screened, 175 were G6PD deficient (5.8 % of the Sistani boys and 19.3 % of the Balouch boys). The malaria survey indicated that among Balouch subjects, malaria infection was about 14 times that of Sistani subjects. Molecular characterization of G6PD-deficient samples revealed a general frequency of 85.1 % for the Mediterranean variant among all subjects (75 % among Sistani and 86.2 % among Balouch cases). The high prevalence of G6PD deficiency among Balouch populations confirms the hypothesis that the distribution of G6PD deficiency is concordant with the geographic distribution of malaria.
Prevalence and molecular identification of the mediterranean variant among G6PD-deficient Sistani and Balouch males in Southeastern Iran
[Category] 말라리아,
[Article Type] article
[Source] pubmed
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