Spectrum of Hematological Diseases in West Bengal, India: Experience from a Tertiary Care Center

India is a country with a population of 1.21 billion as par the 15th National Census Survey in 2011.1 Considering the population load and diversity, prevalence of hematological diseases in India should be alarming. However, the distribution of these diseases in our country is largely unknown. The reason for this may be multifactorial. Firstly, there are not many dedicated set-ups providing hematology services to the population. Secondly, the field of hematology has evolved tremendously over recent years; advanced laboratory and molecular diagnostic techniques has become imperative in making precise diagnosis, the facility for which are either not available or not accessible to our population especially those coming from distant rural areas. Thirdly, the health services are offered by multiple stakeholders. Public sector is overwhelmed with huge patients load and not many centers are able to maintain adequate data and private sector, which comes at a cost and are available to only a particular segment of the society.1 The center at which this study was conducted is a state government set-up providing dedicated hematology services to the people of West Bengal as well as the neighboring states in Eastern India. It is one of the largest centers in terms of patient attendance in this region. Due to the availability of a good laboratory diagnostic facility, most of the patients are offered a concrete diagnosis with precise disease characterization, which makes the analyses of the disease spectrum possible. There is dearth of data pertaining to the distribution of the hematological disease in this region and the morbidity as well as mortality associated with the malignant as well as the benign hematological disease, especially disease with a genetic basis, is immense. Hence, the hospital data of a tertiary level hematology facility was analyzed to gauge into the spectrum of patients visiting health care facility for consultation pertaining to hematological issues. The aim was to analyze the pattern and distribution of hematological disease in Eastern India in general and the state of West Bengal in particular.