Sickle cell anemia in Garasia tribals of Rajasthan.

Our objective was to document the prevalence of sickle cell anemia among scheduled tribe (Garasia) of Sirohi district in Rajasthan state and study the clinical and hematological profile of the patients with sickle cell disease (Hb SS). In this prospective cross-sectional study, 1676 Garasia tribals attending the hospital or the mobile clinic were screened for sickle cell anemia by sickling test followed by confirmation with hemoglobin (Hb) electrophoresis. Prevalence of sickle cell anemia was found to be 9.2% (155/1676) of which 0.8% (14/1676) were homozygous (disease, Hb SS) whereas 8.4% were heterozygous (carrier, Hb AS). Common presentations of sickle cell disease were anemia, pain, recurrent infection and splenomegaly.