How does thalassemia affect the skeletal system Essay

How does thalassemia affect the skeletal system - Essay Example Thalassemia is a hereditary disorder characterized by a diminished or a malfunction of the production of hemoglobin; a blood protein that transports oxygen to the tissues, which results from the mutation of the manufacture of hemoglobin primarily because of the abnormality of the bones and the enlargement of the spleen. Anemia is a good example that portrays severe cases of Thalassemia; bone and growth deformities, defects and hemosiderosis (Barber & Stringer, 2011). The most common Thalassemias are alpha-Thalassemia and beta-Thalassemia whose frequency of occurrence is around 1.7% worldwide. Alpha-Thalassemia comes from the abnormal production of the ÃŽ ±-globin chain while ÃŽ ²-Thalassemia is from the ÃŽ ²-globin chain (Barber & Stringer, 2011). Alpha-Thalassemia affects mainly people from Africa and South-East Asia while beta-Thalassemia is prevalent among people from the Mediterranean, Africa, and South-East Asia. The predominance of ÃŽ ²-Thalassemia is higher in areas where malaria is or was once an endemic. Severe changes occur on the calvarium due to porotic hyperostosis as shown in figure 1 below. This manifests extensively on the frontal portion including the inferior portion, the parietals and the squamous of the occipital through porosis (Lagia et al., 2007). Due to Thalassemia, patients often experience extensive pitting in the posterior portion of the skull, which includes the parietal and occipital bones as shown in figure 3. There is also mild pitting of the frontal bone and the orbital roof as demonstrated in figure 2. For this reason, the cranial bones become thicker than usual, wavering from typical 4.5mm to a maximum of 10mm in thickness (Filon et al., 1995). The expanded diploe can be seen on the external surface, which becomes eroded over time. The trabeculae of the diploe become increasingly reduced in number, accompanied by the thickening and radial arrangement of the trabeculae that are left;

Chapter 10 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 10 - Case Study Example Adults within the community identified an inability to control social problems because of social disorders within the community members, which contributed to the increased spread of HIV by promoting immoral behaviors. The churches only contributed to the control by creating solutions through identifying community needs and not considering issues contributing to the spread of HIV (Cene et al., 2011). Some of the community based used to control HIV include the use of media to provide information concerning HIV AIDS. Training of community leaders can help reduce stigma among community members. Other activities that the group identified include use of group counseling to provide and outreach to the entire community (Cene et al., 2011). According to the youth, disagreed with the adults view and felt that tension within the society like lack of cohesion related to separation and poverty made different individuals within the community fail to identify their individual belonging and reduced the availability of resources outside individual networks. The youths explained racial conflicts between whites and AA, disagreements based on region borders, and economic differences among members of the community contributed to the conflict (Cene et al., 2011). The study participants felt that those churches did not provide enough information to control the spread of HIV within the community. Some of the church leaders do not talk about HIV or even get involved in community activities that provide information of HIV. Church leaders consider HIV a disease brought by homosexuality and fornication. These opinions helped to distance some people and very difficult to get the numerous resources inbuilt in the churches (Cene et al., 2011). The techniques used to handle this challenge include, cohesiveness among people which assist in reducing the spread of HIV. Doctors should use the information to modify