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G6PD deficiency (favism)

Deficientia glucoso-6-phosphatdehydrogenasae (favismus) · Deficit G6PD (favismus)

What it is

An inherited enzyme shortage leaves red cells unable to cope with oxidants; fava beans, some drugs and infections make them burst.

Symptoms & signs

  • Usually none
  • sudden pallor, dark urine and jaundice after a trigger
  • tiredness and breathlessness
  • newborn jaundice

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Dark, cola-coloured urine with pallor or breathlessness
  • call 112 / 911 now A baby yellow in the first day of life, or very yellow and sleepy
  • see a doctor soon Yellow skin or eyes after beans, a new drug or an infection
  • see a doctor soon Sudden paleness, tiredness and fast heartbeat

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Test before primaquine, rasburicase or dapsone
  • avoid trigger drugs (some antimalarials, sulfonamides, nitrofurantoin)
  • blood transfusion in a severe crisis
  • phototherapy for newborn jaundice

Natural & lifestyle

  • Avoid fava (broad) beans
  • no naphthalene mothballs or henna for babies
  • treat infections early

Emerging & experimental

  • AG1 (a G6PD activator) in trials
  • gene therapy research

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • High-dose vitamin C — at high doses it can itself trigger the red cells to burst anecdotal / traditional
  • Vitamin E — small 1980s studies reduced haemolysis; later ones did not mixed evidence
  • Chinese herbs (coptis, huang lian) — linked to newborn jaundice in G6PD-deficient babies; avoid anecdotal / traditional

ICD codes