Table 3.

Prevalence of thalassemia in GCC countries.

Country	Study ID	Children below five years	Children above five years	Adults	Event	Total	Percent
Patients with thalassemia
Saudi Arabia	AlHamdan et al. (2007) [41]	No	No	Yes	348	488315	0.07%
	Alsaeed et al. (2011) [39]	No	No	Yes	33	329	10.0%
	Alsaeed et al. (2018) [42]	No	Yes	Yes	787	1230582	0.064%
	El-Hazmi et al. (1982) [44]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not mentioned	2643	30.72%
	Memish et al. (2011) [45]	No	No	Yes	29 006	1572140	1.8%
	Nasserullah et al. (2003) [46]	Yes	No	No	7923	21858	36%
	Ganeshaguru et al. (1987) [32]	No	No	Yes		840
	(i) β-thalassemia				25	840	3.0%
	(ii) α/β-thalassemia				8		0.9%
	(iii) α-thalassemia				364		43.3%
UAE	Barakat-Haddad et al. (2013) [36]	No	Yes	No	57	6329	0.9%
	Denic et al. (2013) [37]	No	No	Yes	2	5672	0.035%
	El-kalla et al. (1998) [38]	Yes	No	No	46	418	11%
Kingdom of Bahrain	Al-arrayed et al. (2003) [34]	No	Yes	Yes	5	5685	0.09%
Kuwait	Adekile et al. (1996) [35]	Yes	Yes	No	12	39	30.7%
Patients with β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease
Saudi Arabia	Alsaeed et al. (2011) [39]	Yes	Yes	Yes	11	329	3.3%
	Pembrey et al. (1980) [30]	Yes	Yes	No	16	140	11.43%
	Perrine et al. (1981) [31]	Yes	No	No	6	2341	0.25%
Bahrain	Rajab et al. (2006) [33]	No	No	Yes	34	282	12%
Qatar	Fawzi et al. (2003) [47]	No	No	Yes	Not mentioned	3275	1.37%