G6PD Deficiency?

DelawareGal

Anyone else ever hear of/have this? My brother called today from basic and said this came back in his blood work and the doctor informed him that my youngest brother and I almost definitely have it also. Now I am making an appointment with my doc. in the morning so I can get it checked out but I really wanted to research it tonight and I'm not having much luck finding a good site :- .

rt4life

I found out I was G6PD deficient after I had my daughter. apparently it had been in my medical records all along. And I was supposed to wear a medical warning tag. but oh well.

My mom doesnt have it and neither does my sister. I dont know if my daughter does. I made it 21 years not knowing anything about it.

 

http://children.webmd.com/glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase-deficiency

http://g6pddeficiency.org/index.php

jerseycailin

I hope I can answer your question...I am an environmental science and engineering Officer, focusing on sanitary engineering but with a public health emphasis in infectious disease. That said, I am not a doctor and simply need to know some things in order to complete my duties in the Army. This is the best explanation I can give.

First, I wouldn't be too concerned about your overall health. While this is a great thing to know, G6PD deficiency isn't typically a problem unless we make it one (as explained below), especially if you have been asymptomatic.

I can give you a 'brief' background as to why we screen for this - 

The military started testing specifically for this deficiency due to the possible complications with certain anti-malarial and other vectorborne disease treatments. Specifically, we started looking at this because primaquine, the most successful drug at treating relapsing malaria, can cause death in the form of hemolytic anemia if administered to those with a G6PD deficiency (other drugs in the same class cause the same problem). Hemolytic anemia basically causes your red blood cells to start breaking down at random points in your body, which can cause anything from mild anemic symptoms like shortness of breath and fatigue to severe symptoms like kidney and liver failure. Many other drugs (although mostly rare in the US with the exception of sulfonomides, aspirin and some other antibiotics) and conditions can cause varying degrees of hemolyitic anemia in combination with this deficiency, which is actually a deficiency of an enzyme which helps to break down certain chemicals found in each of these conditions/drugs.

Most individuals are asymptomatic, thus allowing them to join the military without ever knowing they had the deficiency. Seeing the places we are deploying people to / stationing people in, you can see how not knowing about this deficiency and then proceeding to use the best possible treatment (which would actually kill the individual) can be problematic.

I would have to check on some stuff at work, but the last I checked, those with this had to demonstrate a very mild form of the deficiency to get a waiver for deployment. If found during initial entry training, many individuals are screened out (aka sent home). Sometimes the individuals are forced to stay in CONUS UNLESS they have a skillset so vital/rare/necessary that the risk to not retain them is greater than the risk to their health. In the Army Medical Department, our job is to 'Conserve Fighting Strength' and we cannot do that if we knowingly send someone to a location where certain disease rates are high and the best treatment for such disease would seriously harm or kill the Soldier. I know I'm preaching to the choir; however, we cannot always predict our inventory of drugs/treatments in certain locations of the world.

There is no specific treatment because most individuals are not symptomatic or severe enough to elicit such; if you do become sick because of an interaction related to the deficiency, treatment is supportive only.

Again, I hope this helps!