In 2009, a group of doctors and specialists in Chennai and Coimbatore registered the successful treatment of thalassemia in a child using an unaffected siblings umbilical cord blood. Research
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is being studied for thalassemia. The procedure involves collecting hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from the affected persons blood. The HSCs then have a beta-globin gene added using a lentiviral vector. After destroying the affected persons bone marrow with a dose of chemotherapy (a myeloablative conditioning regimen), the altered HSCs are infused back into the affected person where they become engrafted in the bone marrow where they proliferate. This potentially results in a progressive increase in hemoglobin A2 synthesis in all subsequent developing red blood cells, with resultant resolution of the anemia.While one person with beta thalassemia has no longer required blood transfusions following treatment within a research trial, it is not an approved treatment as of 2018. HbF induction
HbF induction is an attempt to reactivate fetal globin gene transcription. Efforts involve trying to disrupt the fetal globin gene promoter. References
External links

Thalassemia at Curlie
Learning About Thalassemia published by the National Human Genome Research Institute.
A 1986 outbreak of ascariasis in Italy was traced to irresponsible wastewater recycling used to grow Balkan vegetable exports.The number of ova (eggs) in sewage or in crops that were irrigated with raw or partially treated sewage, is a measure of the degree of ascariasis incidence. For example:

In a study published in 1992, municipal wastewater in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, detected over 100 eggs per litre of wastewater and in Czechoslovakia was as high as 240–1050 eggs per litre. In one field study in Marrakech, Morocco, where raw sewage is used to fertilize crop fields, Ascaris eggs were detected at the rate of 0.18 eggs/kg in potatoes, 0.27 eggs/kg in turnip, 4.63 eggs/kg in mint, 0.7 eggs/kg in carrots, and 1.64 eggs/kg in radish. A similar study in the same area showed that 73% of children working on these farms were infected with helminths, particularly Ascaris, probably as a result of exposure to the raw sewage. Lifecycle
The first appearance of eggs in stools is 60–70 days. In larval ascariasis, symptoms occur 4–16 days after infection. The final symptoms are gastrointestinal discomfort, colic and vomiting, fever, and observation of live worms in stools. Some patients may have pulmonary symptoms or neurological disorders during migration of the larvae. There are generally few or no symptoms. A bolus of worms may obstruct the intestine; migrating larvae may cause pneumonitis and eosinophilia.