Apart from screening and treatment of sickle cell anaemia patients, the Sickle Cell Institute of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College here is also providing marriage counseling to reduce the chances of transmission of genetic disorder in the children.
Dr PK Patra, Head of the Biochemistry department, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College said that sickle cell is an ‘autosomal recessive genetic disorder’ with severe symptoms including pain and anaemia.There is no definite treatment to this genetic disorder at present and 10% people of Chhattisgarh carry this abnormal allele.
A person with genes normal is called AA, a person with one gene normal and one sickle gene is called ‘AS or carrier’ while a person with both genes sickle is called ‘SS or patient.’“AS or carrier is clinically normal and usually does not require treatment. But if he/she gets married to another carrier (AS), then their children have chances of sickle cell anaemia,” said Dr Patra.
“The marriage between two carriers has 50% chance of AS child, 25% chance of SS (sickle anaemia patient) and only 25% chance of being normal,” explained Dr Patra.To check marriages between carriers, screening is done and marriage counseling is provided by the institute,” added Dr Patra.The screening is done for people between the age group of 3-15 years at schools, Anganwadi centers and households. The aim behind is early detection of patients to provide proper treatment.
The institute has screened about 11.5 lakh people for sickle cell in eight districts out of which 1,16,000 have been found positive of sickle cell anaemia.Apart from this the institute is doing research to improve treatment modalities and to know different etiologies and pathophysiology of the disorder in sickle cell anaemia.
The institute has 100 bedded hospitals, 10 bedded ICU and 10 bedded day care facility. It is an autonomous institute of the State Government and provides all facilities free of cost.“Screening has been done in eight districts including Raipur, Mahasamund, Durg, Gariaband, Baloda Bazar, Balod, Baimetra and Kawardha. The screening in Mungeli district has been started from Thursday,’ added Dr Patra.