A review of G6PD deficiency in Pakistani perspective.

Glucose -6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is the commonest genetic disorder and is one of the most frequent red cell enzymopathies worldwide.1 It was discovered in 1956 by Alving and his colleagues while investigating the unusual primaquin sensitivity of erythrocytes in Blacks.2 Later, it was discovered that G6PD deficiency was not unique to Africans but was prevalent in other ethnic groups as well. Nearly a decade after its discovery, various associated clinical syndromes were defined.