Reaching Community Through School Going Children for Sickle Cell Disease in Zankhvav Village of Surat District, Western India

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of the study was to explore a method to reach the community via school going adolescents for screening tribal people for Sickle Cell disease. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 1023 school going adolescents for Sickle Cell Disease screening by Dithionite Tube Turbidity (DTT) test with subsequent Hemoglobin Electrophoresis for confirmation among those testing positive for DTT. They were then advised to get their family members tested for the same. Results: 24.41% of school going adolescents tested positive by DTT test. 152 family members of those positive school children came forward for testing. On performing the DTT test on the family members, 53.94% tested positive. Out of those who tested positive, 61% belonged to Vasava caste; 36.6% belonged to Chaudhari caste followed by Gamit and Dhodhia Patel. On the subsequent Hemoglobin electrophoresis, 52.63% of the family members were found to be positive for Sickle Cell Trait and 1.97% tested positive for Sickle Cell Disease. Conclusions: School going children can be an effective medium to approach the community for the screening of Sickle Cell Disease.

Keywords

• Sickle cell disease
• Screening
• Tribal
• School going children