University of Virginia Library

Hereditary Disease

BSA Plans Sickle Cell Tests

By MARGARET ALFORD

Prevention of sickle cell
anemia, a painful blood disease
most common to blacks, will
be the object of a screening
program to be sponsored next
week by the University Black
Students' Alliance (BSA).

All young black people of
child bearing age on the
Grounds will have opportunity
to be tested without expense
for traits of the disease
Tuesday and Thursday,
according to third-year student
Ed Saunders, chairman of the
BSA Community Action
Committee.

Florence N. Cooper,
director of the Virginia Sickle
Cell Anemia Awareness
Program, will conduct the
University screening Tuesday
and Thursday in the Newcomb
Hall Informal Lounge from 9
to 5 p.m.

Sickle cell anemia is carried
in parent genes, and if sickle
cell traits are discovered before
pregnancy, a couple may avert
passing the traits to their
children. The disease is not
usually contracted by children
unless both parents carry sickle
cell traits.

The BSA plans counseling
for persons carrying the
disease. Approximately one
out of 10 blacks have the sickle
cell trait in their blood,
although only one out of 100
actually have symptoms of the
disease.

Symptoms include jaundice,
fever, pain in joints, blindness,
and crippling in severe cases.
No cure has yet been found.

Testing Unrestricted

Testing will not be
restricted to blacks, Mr.
Saunders said, although the
frequency of sickle cell anemia
is much higher among blacks
than in other races.

"In Africa, sickle cell in the
blood provides a genetic
adaptation to fight malaria,"
Mr. Saunders said.

"In the United States,
however, the prevalence of
malaria is far lower, so the
sickle cell attacks the
hemoglobin, reducing the
amount of oxygen going to the
cells."

Specific Health Problems

"The BSA Community
Action Committee will deal this
year with specific health
problems in the black
community," Mr. Saunders
said. "Areas to be studied are
drugs, sickle cell anemia, and
nutrition."

"We began with the sickle
cell program since it is the
farthest-reaching project," he
added.

Mr. Saunders said that after
completion of the University
study, his committee plans to
coordinate testing of black
students at Lane and
Albemarle high schools, and
then to extend the program
citywide for anyone previously
not reached for screening.