anaemia
Condition caused by a shortage of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells. The main symptoms are fatigue, pallor, breathlessness, palpitations, and poor resistance to infection. Treatment depends on the cause.
Anaemia arises either from abnormal loss or defective production of haemoglobin. Excessive loss occurs, for instance, with chronic slow bleeding or with accelerated destruction (haemolysis) of red blood cells. Defective production may be due to iron deficiency, vitamin B12 deficiency (pernicious anaemia), certain blood diseases (sickle-cell anaemia and thalassaemia), chronic infection, kidney disease, or certain kinds of poisoning. Untreated anaemia taxes the heart and may prove fatal.
| An estimated 40% of women worldwide are anaemic (25% of the total population); this figure rises to 50% for pregnant women. In southern Asia, 58% of women are anaemic as rice has the lowest iron content of all cereals. The world's highest rate for anaemia is found in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, where local doctors claim 98% of the 700,000 women are anaemic (1999). Their ill health is related to the drying up of the Aral Sea. |
