An Automated Mass Screening Program for Sickle Cell Disease

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The automated dithionite test, which identifies hemoglobin S at a reagent cost of 2 cents each and at a rate of 120 specimens per hour, has been used successfully in both civilian and military mass screening programs for the detection of sickle cell disease. Black school children in Grand Rapids, Mich, were used as the initial test population for a trail of the technique in an ordinary community. Families of those students with positive tests were selected out of a total black population for additional testing. Several patient-controlled options were then offered to afflicted families, including choice of physician, clinics, treatment, and genetic counseling. Country-wide adoption of this automated method should lead to the accumulation of accurate statistics for the first time on incidence, morbidity, mortality, gene frequency, and susceptibility to other diseases of sickle-cell-afflicted individuals.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: