GENERATIONS
The Screening
Scheduling of an annual screening for Tay-Sachs disease
may be the long-term outcome of the Jan. 15 effort.
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ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
S
Larry Gunsberg comforts wife Leanie.
Yaakov Friedman, right, asks for assistance.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1989
inai Hospital officials are con-
sidering making this month's
community-wide screening for
Tay-Sachs disease ' an annual
event in an effort to eradicate
the disease.
Robin Gold, genetics counselor at
Sinai, said the free testing program
at five sites on Jan. 15 attracted 420
persons. An additional 40, who arriv-
ed too late for testing, will receive the
screening free of charge in the corn-
ing weeks. One site, at United
Hebrew Schools, was so popular that
it ran out of equipment.
Three hundred individuals were
tested in the general screenings con-
ducted at the Maple/Drake Jewish
Community Center and UHS. One
hundred twenty individuals were
tested at the Jimmy Prentis Morris
Jewish Center, Yeshivah Gedolah and
the Sally Allan Alexander Beth Jacob
School for Girls, using the Dor
Yeshorim approach.
Dor Yeshorim, of Brooklyn, N.Y.,
keeps the Tay-Sachs results confiden-
tial until a couple planning marriage
submits their test numbers. The
organization will tell the couple if
they are capable of producing a Tay-
Sachs baby, but not if they are Tay-
Sachs carriers.
A baby born with Tay-Sachs
disease dies by the age of 4 or 5. -
Persons who do not consider abor-
tion an option were asked to use the
Dor Yeshorim approach: Those who
participated in the general screening
will be given their results within the
next few weeks.
Anyone who tests positive in the
general screening will be called by
Robin Gold. The seven pregnant
couples tested Jan. 15 will also be
called if they have positive results.
More than 30 volunteers and
Sinai Hospital personnel staffed the
five sites. They included members of
the Sinai Hospital Guild, a genetics
counselor from Hutzel Hospital and
a nurse from Children's, nursing staff
Polly Levey's family watches while Dr. Alvin Schoenberger draws her blood.
Robert Stollman and Sheryl Hollander were
still smiling after the tests.
Volunteers were kept busy.