Chhattisgarh with a reasonably high incidence of Sickle Cell Aneamia among tribals does not find itself in the Centre’s list of States where programmes were held for identification of Sickle Cell Hemoglobin in tribal students through a low cost “Turbidity Test” developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
According to an official note on the achievements of the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a protocol for identification of Sickle Cell Hemoglobin in tribal students through a low cost “Turbidity Test” has been developed by ICMR. Training workshops were organised by the Ministry to carry out these tests within this financial year. A card is being issued to each child on Sickle Cell status which would be used to counsel parents of sickle cell carriers not to marry other sickle cell carrier, it stated.
Gujarat has already completed more than 80% screening. Training workshops have been held in Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the note stated. The problem of Sickle Cell Anaemia is so severe in Chhattisgarh that in February this year, the State Government decided to frame a 'Sickle Cell Policy' to tackle the problem posed by the disease in the State.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Autonomous Committee of the Chhattisgarh Sickle Cell Institute. Aapart from screening and treatment of Sickle cell Anaemia patients, the Sickle Cell Institute of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Raipur is also providing marriage counselling to reduce the chances of transmission of genetic disorder into the children.
Dr PK Patra, Head of the Biochemistry Department, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College had stated last year 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 normal genes is called AA, a person with one normal gene and one Sickle gene is called ‘AS or carrier’ while a person with both sickle genes 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 Cell Anaemia patient) and only 25% chance of being normal,” explained Dr Patra. To check marriages between carriers, screening is done and marriage counselling 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.