@Article{, title={Premarital Screening Program for Hemoglobinopathies in Karbala, Iraq}, author={Mohammed N. Attiyah and Waleed K. Al-Najafi}, journal={Karbala Journal of Medicine مجلة كربلاء الطبية}, volume={13}, number={1}, pages={2293-2300}, year={2020}, abstract={Background: Premarital screening program for hemoglobinopathies started in Karbala gover-norate on June13, 2012. Aim: To evaluate the premarital screening program in Karbala governorate.Methods: A cross-sectional study by reviewing the records of five premarital clinics and Kar-bala hereditary blood disease center from first of March 2016 to first of October 2018. Total number of individuals screened for hemoglobinopathies were 52014 (26007 couples). Com-plete blood count (CBC) was done for all screened couples. If both man and woman have mean corpuscular volume (MCV) < 80 femto liter (fl) and/or mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) < 27 picogram (pg) they should be referred to Karbala hereditary blood diseases cen-ter for further investigation of abnormal hemoglobin. Prevalence of abnormal hemoglobin cal-culated by Punnett Square equation and Hardy-Weinberg law.Results: Number of individuals referred from peripheral premarital clinics to the center were 1780 (890 couples). Individuals included in the study were1560 (87.7%) from Karbala gover-norate, the rest with missing address or from other governorates were excluded. The most prevalent hemoglobinopathy among referred individuals was B-thalassemia 344(22.05%). Re-ferred individuals with sickle hemoglobin were 51(3.26%). Prevalence of B-thalassemia and sickle hemoglobin in this study was 3.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.64 – 3.96) and 0.56% (95% CI 0.5 – 0.62), respectively. High-risk marriage couples were 84 (3.2/1000).Conclusion: The premarital screening for hemoglobinopathies program in Karbala gover-norate was able to detect many risky marriages although it still needs more improvement.

} }