FIFTH form students from the Porus High School have achieved 100 per cent compliance in the ‘sickle cell screening’ for the Manchester Project.

The project offers blood test screening to the fifth and sixth formers of 14 secondary schools in Manchester but also includes Spalding and Knox High Schools just across the border in Clarendon.

The tests seek to identify carriers of abnormal haemoglobin genes which could give rise to a baby with sickle cell disease in the future. These abnormal genes occur in 15 per cent of Jamaicans and include 10 per cent with the sickle cell trait, 3.5 per cent with the HBC trait and 1.5 per cent with the beta thalassaemia trait.

All tested students are given permanent laminated cards with personal information and their haemoglobin genotype and carriers of abnormal genes are offered counseling.

The project started in the 2007/2008 academic year and the average compliance has increased steadily from 56 per cent in the first year improving sequentially to 75 per cent, 84 per cent and 88 per cent in the 2010/2011 year. Last year, eight out of 14 schools achieved 90 per cent or greater.

Screening has been offered to approximately 2,700 students annually. Porus High School has always been in the top three positions of the compliance tables and this year Porus with 189 students in the 5th form has been the first to achieve 100 per cent.

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