Health Care Challenges of Hereditary Common Hematological Disorders in Odisha, India

Medical Genetics over the past few decades have emerged as an important and powerful medical specialty with increasing appreciation of its role and function in the biomedical sciences. This emergence is related to a great extent to the progress in the Human Genome Project, which promises wide-ranging applications in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human diseases. Nevertheless, the discussion on the role of genetics as the preventive medicine and public health care also lead to ethical, legal and social concerns about general applicability of genetic testing in the ethnic communities. The interpretation of prevention in the context of genetic diseases leads to the unavoidable discussions of genetic engineering, stem cell transplantation, prenatal diagnosis and selective termination of pregnancy, as well as broader concerns about discrimination in health care coverage, gender bias, employment and insurance in the society. In Indian communities where consanguineous marriage is widely practiced, recessive/x-linked genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, will continue to gain greater prominence in the overall spectrum of ill health. Developing an understanding of these changes will require a wide-ranging and multidisciplinary investigative approach for which public health genetics is ideally suited to conditions in Odisha