Providing appropriate genetic information to healthy carriers of hemoglobinopathy can be a welcome and safe initiative: the Latium example.

Aims: To register the opinions and feelings of (presumed) unaware healthy hemoglobinopathy carriers, receiving information on their carrier status.

Methods: We collected 259 interviews from the parents of secondary school students, after their children had been provisionally diagnosed as hemoglobinopathy carriers during the routine school screening campaign imbedded in the public health care program of the Latium region (Central Italy). After screening of the children, all parents received a standard reassuring letter informing them about the presumed healthy carrier status of their children and were invited for a confirmation of the trait and for an additional explanation if needed.