Red Blood Cells (RBC’s) circulate throughout the body distributing oxygen to muscle tissue and vital organs and they carry away waste gases like carbon dioxide to the lungs where the waste gases are expelled. There are hundreds of billions of RBC’s circulating in our bodies. Each one has an average lifespan of about 120 days. 

New RBC’s are made in the bone marrow (a cavity present in most bones) by a process known as erythropoiesis. Thalassaemia patients suffer from ineffective erythropoiesis because the inappropriate production of haemoglobin in their RBC’s causes disruption of the maturation of the RBC’s and a shortened lifespan. The degree to which erythropoiesis is affected varies according to the type and severity of thalassaemia that a person has. The different forms of thalassaemia are classified according to the number and type of globin genes affected. It is a complex genetic disorder because a number of genes, on different chromosomes may be affected in a number of different ways.