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Individuals suffering from thalassemia requires regular transfusion in absence of expensive stem cell transplant treatment. However, repeated or frequent blood transfusion along with post transfusion hepatitis intensifies the severity of disease and it continues to be a problem in these high risked individuals.

In a cross-sectional study, after consents 350 individuals suffering from beta thalassemia excluding patients of any other blood disease were interviewed for different epidemiological parameters e.g. Gender, age, transfusion history, family and personal history from October 2012-December 2013. Haematological parameters such as RBC indices and quantification of haemoglobin were recorder retrospectively. Individuals were screened for transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) mainly anti-HIV, HBsAg and anti-HCV. 

Out of 300 thalassemic individuals 47% (142/350) were infected with TTI including 78 males and 64 females. The seroactivity for HCV was highest 93% (133/142) followed by for HBV 6.3% (9/142) and no seroactivity for HIV. Beta thalassemia major (>95%) was most common followed by thalassemia intermedia (<5%) and few structural variants (<1 %) e.g. HbS and HbH. When compared to the normal age span, it was observed that only 3.14% (11/350) of the patients crossed the second decade of their life. Early onset disease (before 6 months) was more common (24%; 124/350) than the late onset e.g. above 36 months (06%; 21/350). 

Short life span and high number of HCV/ HbBAg status depicts that in a country like Pakistan insufficient facilities, poor management and compromised socioeconomic status are deteriorating the disease status. More multicenter studies covering cities from different regions of country are needed in developing preventive measurements at regional and national level.