A disease, by definition, is a disorder of structure or function in an organism that produces specific symptoms or signs to indicate its presence. Inheritance, in terms of biology, is the passing of characteristics, good or bad, from parents to its off-spring. Inherited diseases are the passing of bad characteristics from generation to generation.
Inherited or genetic diseases are a result of mutation in the basic set of genes that comprise genetic information and are collectively called DNA. Though some mutations result into diseases that might be favorable under certain environmental conditions, most of the major inherited disorders are unfavorable and inherited blood diseases are not advantageous to a person in any way.
Presently, 4000 inherited disease have been classified, with the numbers increasing gradually as science advance deeper in understanding genetics. Cystic Fibrosis is one of the most common disorders that are genetically inherited. Another such common diseases are blood diseases such as thalassaemia and sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell anaemia is a disease that was discovered in 1949 but is still under scrutiny, with scientists studying the causes and treatments till date. The reason for being so meticulous in its study is because there are known to be hundreds of variations found in the DNA that cause sickle cell anemia. Symptoms that indicate presence of this disease include symptoms that are similar to anemia.
Thalassemia is a blood disease that is classified as an inherited type blood disorder and the condition includes various kinds of disorders. The disease is rampant in all parts of the world with 100,000 babies affected with thalassemia every year.
Asian, Greek, Italian and Chinese are most vulnerable to thalassemia. There are three stages of thalassemia: Minor, Intermediate and Major thalassemia. Early detection of the condition may help in controlling the effects of thalassemia. Baroda Clinical Lab offers services in diagnosis of thalassemia with its state-of-the-art technology and expertise in the field on histochemistry.
Hemophilia was a condition discovered when even science was not so advanced to detect the disease. Hemophilia was detected by an Arab physician and has a rich history of being known as the "royal disease" because it affected Queen Victoria of England who later passed on the carrier genes for the disease to her two daughters which further spread the disease in the Spanish, Russian and German royal families.
A carrier is a person who carries a defective gene responsible for causing disorders but does not show symptoms of the disease.
Apart from the ones discussed above, there are many other types of inherited disease such as thrombophilia, pernicious anemia, thrombocytopenic purpura etc. Diseases of genetic origin are not completely curable, though research is still being done on possible treatments that are capable of curing the condition right from the roots, that is, DNA.
Baroda Clinical Lab is committed to pursue deep research in the study of inherited blood disease apart from providing world-class facilities to detect them.
