Thumbs-up for free thalassaemia screening
Published on: Sunday, July 31, 2016
Penampang: The free screening for thalassaemia programme for Form Four students has received encouraging response in Sabah.Disclosing this, Health Department Acting Deputy Director (Public Health) Dr Asits Sanna said over 90 per cent of parents in Sabah have given their consent for their children to undergo free screening for thalassaemia in secondary schools.He said the free screening, which began in February this year, will cover 240 secondary schools, including the Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) and Islamic religious schools.
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"Actually it is not compulsory for the students to undergo the free screening for thalassaemia as the schools need to have the parents' permission."So far, majority of parents have no problem allowing their Form 4 children to take up the screening as only a little percentage of them do not agree to the screening for their own reasons."In fact, we do give counselling to the students undertaking the screening before and after getting the results," he said.Dr Asits said this to reporters after representing State Health Director Dr Christina Rundi to launch the State-level Young Doctors Club Zoomers for secondary schools at SMK Bahang, here, Saturday.
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He said the Health Department has a schedule to run the screening for all Form 4 students so that the programme would not interrupt their learning time in the schools.To a question, he said the screening results of the students could be made known between two weeks and a month, on average, depending on the location of schools.
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"This is because the labs in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) that do the blood analysis can handle 2,800 blood samples at a time."Once the results are out, those students who are found to be thalassemia carriers would be given a MyKad-size card that states his or her health status on the inherited blood disorder," he said.Dr Asits said it is advisable for students to take up the free screening for thalassemia so that those found to be carriers can make important decisions in their lives as they still have chances to have normal children if their spouses are normal and not carriers.Earlier, Dr Rundi said in her speech that the Young Doctors Club Programme is a "joint ownership" between the Health Ministry and Education Ministry that promotes healthcare and self-hygiene which is being carried out actively in primary schools and now later expanded to secondary schools."Based on the National Young Doctors Club Report, as of August 2015, a total of 89 secondary schools have set up the Young Doctors Clubs and of these, 25 secondary schools are in Sabah."In comparison to primary schools, there are 254 schools in the State that have established the clubs."We believe that the number of the schools would be increased with the implementation of the Zoomers Young Doctors Club programme that will focus on schools that have yet to set up the clubs," she said.Dr Asits delivered Dr Rundi's speech at the event.Through the programme that will have its own training syllabuses for teachers and students as the role model and peers for others, she said it will teach and encourage students to lead a healthy lifestyle by instilling positive perceptions on taking care of their own health."At the same time, I am calling on the teachers selected to handle the clubs to spend more time with the young doctors to acquire knowledge on healthcare and help them to disseminate the valuable health information to others."Looking at current health issues related to health problems among students like obesity, I am optimistic that the young doctors among the students would be able to address the problem with the guidance of their teachers," she said.Meanwhile, State Education Director Maimunah Suhaibul said using the secondary schools as a 'setting' to promote healthcare is most suitable to implement the programme.She said equipping the students with health education knowledge could also help the schools address health problems among the students especially on maintaining personal hygiene.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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