| In 1986, the Sickle Cell Trust (Jamaica) was registered as a local charity to provide education and increase awareness of sickle cell disease. It complemented the work of the MRC Laboratories (Jamaica) who operated the Sickle Cell Unit at the University of the West Indies, Kingston , Jamaica by providing support and improving services for patients. The Trust was chaired by Professor Graham Serjeant who also directed the MRC Laboratories. Since 1999 when Prof. Serjeant retired from the MRC, the Trust has focused on public education, generating many educational materials and also on prevention of the disease through the Manchester Project. |
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Mission statement
For patients: To improve the outcome of sickle cell disease by simple cost-effective measures, education and family empowerment.
For communities: To reduce the frequency of sickle cell disease by community education, counselling and screening.
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1. Educational Materials
Producing educational materials especially relevant to developing societies with limited resources. These include pamphlets, brochures, posters, teaching slides, videos, DVD’s, booklets, interactive CD Rom tutorials
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2. Data Collection and Analysis
DISCUS an Oracle based program for the comprehensive collection and processing of clinical and laboratory data to improve patient management and clinical research. This new generation program has been developed from the Patient Management System (PMS) successfully employed by the MRC Laboratories (Jamaica) in the management of 5,500 patients with sickle cell disease. In addition to menu-driven data collection, DISCUS provides real time graphing for growth and haematological indices, incorporation of radiological and clinical images and a coding system which allows easy recall of complications for research |
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3. Research
Prevention of a genetic disease.
The Manchester Project seeks to determine whether genotype detection and education will reduce the frequency of births with sickle cell disease. Screening is designed to detect HbS, HbC, and beta thalassaemia trait. Counselling is offered to all carriers of abnormal haemoglobins.
This student didn’t mind having a blood test
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