HYDERABAD: With two to three per cent of the 14.44 lakh children born each year in the State suffering from various genetic disorders, a ‘medical genetics unit’ is being established on August 11 at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here in collaboration with the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics.
Funded by the Department of Biotechnology, the unit would provide high-end services and counselling to children and families affected with genetic disorders.
They would be briefed on the disease, availability of treatment and the need for pre-natal diagnosis, wherever required.
Alarming situation
Those born with genetic disorders each year in the State include 30,000 to 40,000 with congenital malformations (predominantly heart defects and cleft lips), 1,444 - Down’s syndrome, 534 - thalassemia, 250 - sickle cell anaemia and 500 others with amino acid disorders.
“As one in every 800 couple will have a child with Down’s syndrome, we advice every couple to undergo a non-invasive blood test around three months of pregnancy to find out who is at high risk”, Ashwin Dalal, head, diagnostics division, CDFD, told The Hindu.
This would be followed up by an amniotic fluid test, if required, to confirm if the child would be born with Down syndrome. Pre-natal screening to detect the abnormality was available at CDFD and a few private laboratories in the city.
The inauguration of the unit would be followed by signing of a MoU between NIMS and CDFD. The unit would train students and conduct research on genetic disorders.
(Source: The Hindu)
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