1. [Prevention of mediterranean anemia in Latium: Ida Bianco archives].
- Author
-
Falchetti M, Lupi R, and Ottini L
- Subjects
- History, 20th Century, Humans, Mass Screening history, Phenotype, Rome, Schools history, beta-Thalassemia genetics, beta-Thalassemia prevention & control, Archives, beta-Thalassemia history
- Abstract
Mediterranean anemia or beta-thalassemia is a hereditary syndrome characterized by a severe defect in haemoglobin production and an altered morphology of red blood cells. Homozygous condition for beta-thalassemia is characterized by short survival. Heterozygous condition is clinically found in adolescence and is characterized by a less aggressive phenotype. Ida Bianco, with her husband Ezio Silvestroni, has conducted a long struggle for beta-thalassemia prevention in Italy. They were the first to draw up an accurate map of the distribution of thalassemia in Italy and to conceive and implement a campaign against this genetic disease by the development of annual screening on at-school teenagers and pre-marriage prevention. Here we focused on the analysis of Ida Bianco's archives concerning screenings conducted on middle-schools in the Latium by the "Centro Studi della Microcitemia" of Rome from 1975 up to today. The results of the thirty-years prevention work in the Latium will be described.
- Published
- 2006