Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Thalassemia is a Greek word that is derived from the two words “Thalassa” meaning the sea and “Emia” means blood and is called Mediterranean anemia or Cooley’s anemia. The disease is spread across the Mediterranean region, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and United States. Between 1.5% and 3% of the worlds population is the carrier of β-thalassemia gene. In South-East Asia, the prevalence of thalassemia carriers is 10% to 20%. It is estimated that there are about 80 to 90 million beta thalassemia carriers in the world. It is also estimated that at least 60,000 new beta-thalassemia cases are born in the world every year. Most of the cases occur in developing countries. Thalassemia has an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. When parents are carriers of the β-thalassemia gene, one in four (25%) pregnancies will be affected.

Countries need to know how many people are born and die each year – and the main causes of their deaths – in order to have well-functioning health systems. The only way to count everyone and to track all births and deaths is through civil registration. Civil registration provides the basis for individual legal identity but also allows countries to identify their most pressing health issues. WHO receives cause-of-death statistics regularly from about 100 Member States. However, globally, two-thirds (38 million) of 56 million annual deaths are still not registered and every year, almost half of the world’s children go unregistered (1).

In 2005 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS) along with its Iranshahr Campus provided health coverage for 8 cities/towns and their subordinate districts including Zahedan, Khash, Saravan, Sarbaz, Nikshahr, Iranshahr, Chabahar and Konark. The region under the coverage of ZUMS shares land border of 1200 km with Pakistan and Afghanistan and 300 km sea border with Oman and Pakistan.

Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) are communitymembers who work as a strong link between the healthcare system and people in different layers of community.Each CHV will be assigned to a specific catchment areawhich comprises 40 households. Upon recruitment, theyparticipate in health training classes which take place inboth urban and rural health centers on a weekly basis

In 2015, only 2 countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988. As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Most of Afghanistan is polio-free. The country has not yet interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus. While most cases in 2014 were due to poliovirus imported from neighboring Pakistan, there is also ongoing transmission of virus within Afghanistan. Similarly, most of Pakistan is polio-free. The country has never interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus. Transmission is intense in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and periodically spreads to other parts of the country and internationally. In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunization systems.