The 40 full papers and 44 posters report on developments relating to the fatal genetic blood disease, also known as thalassemia, that affects about 100,000 babies a year, primarily those of Mediterranean, Southeast Asian, or Indian descent. Among the topics are new success with vectors for delivering gene therapy, the first mouse model with the disease, using umbilical cord blood as an alternative to transplanting bone marrow, new iron-chelator drugs to help the body unload the excess iron accumulated from frequent blood transfusions, and the results of major new trials of fetal hemoglobin enhancing agents. No subject index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.