A little information on anaemia

Like other countries, expatriates who want to do work in Oman, have to go for the medical check-up, locally known as Visa Medical. Yesterday, two ladies came for visa medical and both are from India. Surprisingly (and shockingly) their blood haemoglobin(Hb) levels were much lower than the normal level. One lady is walking with the haemoglobin level 3.7 g/dL and another one with 5.9 g/dL.

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Do you know the normal limit of Hb? It should be more than 13 g/dL in a male and 12 g/dL in a female. When the value is less than the normal limit the condition is calledAnaemia.

Anaemia itself is not a disease rather is the manifestation of underlying disease conditions. According to the level of Hb, it can be classified into following ways:

• Mild Anaemia: When Hb level is below the normal range but above 9 g/dL
• Moderate Anaemia: When Hb level is between 6-9 g/dL
• Severe Anaemia: When Hb level is below 6 g/dL

How can you guess if you are having anaemia?

• You will feel fatigue or tired in most of the time
• You may feel breathing difficulties in any type of physical activities depending upon severity of anaemia
• Muscle weakness, headache, tinnitus, dizziness are quite common symptoms
• Palpitations, chest pain on effort, heart failure and intermittent claudication pain (pain in the lower limbs after walking a while/faster)
• Eating non-nutritive foods (pica disorder)

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Our two patients didn't get fitness certificate from our centre and we referred them to the proper authority(CDC of Oman) regarding visa medical. According to Oman's rule, if Hb level is below 8 g/dL, nobody will get fitness until it is raised above the required limit.

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