Sickle cell safari.

A narrative concerning mass screening of totaling over 104,000 Individuals have been a large population at risk for sickle hemotested. The manner of community education lobin, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and organization, laboratory methodology. deficiency, anemia, and lead poisoning is results obtained, means of reporting, and presented. At the time of writing, more follow-up procedures are detailed. than one-tenth of a black community I N December 1968, the value of screening patients for sickle cell hemoglobin was underscored by an autopsy performed at Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee on an individual who was not anemic and who had undergone elective cholecystectomy. She was a middle-aged, obese, black woman who had had fluids withheld from the previous evening and was operated on late in the day. Anesthesia was prolonged, and she died toward the end of the surgical procedure. Autopsy revealed sickled erythrocytes throughout the microvasculature. A few days later, routine screening of all black hospital inpatients was begun for hemoglobin 5, primarily at the insistence of a black physician, Dr. George Lane. In April 1970, Deaconess Hospital sponsored a 1-day multidisciplinary symposium on sickle cell disease, which was also initiated by Dr. Lane. With the introduction of the tube test for sickling hemoglobins, automation and mass screening became feasible. Dr. Lane, with the assistance of Mrs. Hazel Maxwell, aroused the interest of the lay community, the National Foundation for March of Dimes, Deaconess Hospital, and the author toward the goal of screening over 104,000 blacks in the Milwaukee community. An advisory board was formed in 1971, and over 300 lay and paramedical volunteers were obtained from the community, along with 12 physician consultants, to accomplish this goal. The aim of the program has been the education and awakening of the professional, paramedical, and lay community to the prevalence and detection of erythrocyte abnormalities. Numerous existing agencies, including the Milwaukee Health Department, began to distribute educational materials provided by the Center and to draw blood samples for testing by Deaconess Hospital. Many organizations have given public endorsement to the project, including the Medical Society of Milwaukee County. By mid-May, over one-tenth of the greater Milwaukee community had been