Infectious Disease: A Cause of Hemolytic Anemia in Glucose-6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency

Excerpt

The role played by a congenital deficiency of the erythrocyte enzyme glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in drug-induced hemolytic anemias has received increasing attention in both the medical literature and the public press (1). The defect is transmitted as a sex-linked trait, hemizygous males and homozygous females being fully affected, and heterozygous females having a partial deficiency of the enzyme (2). With an estimated 13% of American Negro males affected (2, 3), the magnitude of the problem is indicated by the fact that in the United States alone there are at least 1 million affected persons. Clinical problems in enzyme-deficient individuals