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  • 1 year ago

What if you could know your risk for different diseases over the span of your lifetime? Well that's what genetic testing is said to offer.

One Geneticist describes it as "preventative medicine," as she calls for it to be part of the health programme for newborn babies.

Alicia Boucher has the details in our Health Watch.
Transcript
00:00The TV6 Health Watch is brought to you by Alive, giving you more minerals and vitamins
00:05than leading brands, distributed by H&G Enterprises Ltd.
00:13According to online medical publications, there are over 6,000 genetic disorders, including
00:18cancer, diabetes, some mental health problems, and lupus.
00:23According to founder of GenX, geneticist Dr. Nikul Ramlachan, the country focuses on treating
00:28symptoms and diagnosis rather than preventing diseases.
00:33She labels genetic testing as one of the preventative measures as it can detect different risks
00:39in people predisposed to genetic diseases.
00:42It works by identifying mutations of genes in the body.
00:46If I take you and I take somebody who has a normal sequence at that particular spot,
00:52the person with the mutation has a higher risk of developing that disease.
00:57And how do we know that?
00:58Because we say we've checked 10,000 people who have breast cancer and all of them have
01:03had this mutation at this particular point in the sequence.
01:07And we call that correlation studies.
01:10Testing is done in panels where genes can be examined for predisposition to different
01:14diseases at once.
01:16Dr. Ramlachan says following consultations, which include information on family history,
01:22a determination is made on what to test for.
01:25So somebody might come in and say, listen, I want to know about diabetes, that's what's
01:28in my family.
01:29And based on their family history, and when we talk to them, they might say, well, you
01:32know, oh yeah, also my uncle died from cancer or my brother just got diagnosed with prostate
01:38cancer and so on.
01:39So then we start expanding the panel.
01:41The geneticist tells us the results of the test can inform how people live by way of
01:46providing specifications on diet, exercise, and even medication they should and should
01:51not take.
01:52We have something now for cancer patients called liquid biopsies, where we can actually
01:56look for reoccurrence of cancer or even detection in individuals who are not showing symptoms
02:02who have a family history and so on, just from one or two cells of circulating tumor
02:06cells.
02:07And it's just a plasma sample.
02:08Dr. Ramlachan believes genetic testing would be vital to mothers of newborn babies.
02:14She tells us she has been advocating for it for years.
02:17It's done by most other countries that are considered for its world, automatically at
02:22birth, where they screen for, I think it's about 166, depending on the lab and depending
02:28on the country that they come from, but a couple of hundreds of the more prominent and
02:34prevalent pediatric diseases in newborns that can occur from ages 1 to 12.
02:40At GenX, the tests can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000 on average, all the way up
02:46to $40,000 for a full genome test.
02:49While she states that certain entities assist on a case-by-case basis when people require
02:54genetic testing, Dr. Ramlachan says more has to be done to afford the vulnerable and marginalize
03:01the opportunity for what she sees as preventative medicine.
03:06It needs to be built into our medical programs in Trinidad, and people need to think of it
03:14as an actual tool that is necessary and not something that's optional.
03:19Until that happens, it's not going to be truly incorporated.
03:22I am Alicia Boucher with tonight's Health Watch.
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