Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

1-7

Authors: Shweta Dubey

Haemoglobinopathies are the disorder of hemoglobin and are the commonest gene disorder in the world. The report of WHO 2001, estimate that approximate 250 million people are heterozygous for these disorder and 2000 affected homozygous are born annually which is equally distributed between sickle cell diseases and thalassemia. In India the main form of the Haemoglobinopathies are Sickle cell Anaemia, Thalassemia, Haemoglobin E and Haemoglobin D. In Thalassemia, ß Thalassemia is very common in almost all population group of India. Alpha Thalassemia is less investigated in India which is mainly caused by point mutation, but a few study suggested the prevalence of α thalassemia type II in tribal population of Indian subcontinent. About 75persons belonging to Gond Tribe of Shahdol District of Madhya Pradesh in Central India were investigated for abnormal CBC profile, Haemoglobinopathies, α Thalassemia and ß Thalassemia. The method used for the study is Polymerase Chain Reaction. Sickle Cell Anaemia is the only abnormal haemoglobinopathy in the Tribe with the prevalence rate of 17%. ß Thalassemia was also low with the prevalence rate of 4%. α Thalassemia type II was very common i.e. 43% with mostly right ward deletion i.e., α3.7kbdeletion. The heterozygosity of alpha thalassemia type II reduced the haematologicalparameter slightly. Most of the 62% population was anaemic which was more pronounced among adults female and children, most of the people were mildly anaemic, but a sizeable proportion of adult female and children were moderately to severely anaemic.

1-3

Authors: Obidi Olayide Folashade

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and concentrations of nickel in painted walls ofselectedrural residential buildings in Lagos, Nigeria with a view to determine the health risk of the occupants. Microorganisms isolated were Bacillus subtilis, B. brevis, B. megaterium, B.circulansand Enterobacter gergoviae withpopulation density ranging from1.0 -2.1 and 0.5 -1.9x 105cfu/g in the outdoor and indoor samples respectively. Nickel concentrationwas determined by the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Here wereported the detection of nickel in all samplesobtained from thirteen rural locations withconcentrations rangingfrom2.240 to 11.353 and from 1.241 to 13.309mg/lin outdoor and indoor samples respectively. Nickel concentrations showed the levels were above the maximum permissible limits recommended byUSEPA.The rural populace in these areas may be at risk.