THIS is apropos of the news report ‘Genetic screening future of medicine, moot told’ (March 25). A three-day conference had ended after discussing and concluding the benefits of genetic screening; it did not highlight the drawbacks of genetic screening.

Genetic screening is normally done to determine a genetic makeup of certain genes in individuals. An early detection of atypical sequences of targeted genes may help to avoid their consequences.

Currently, Pakistan’s healthcare system lacks the capacity to deliver any quality genetic services for people.

Once its health system is enabled to carry out genetic tests, it should decide whether genetic screening test results should be passed or not from doctors or labs to customers because this information may bring new social, legal and ethical dilemmas.

The drawbacks could be positive as tests may induce psychological distress, even if the individual risk remains low.

In contrast, negative results might inappropriately reassure the patient concerning his risk to develop a disease.

Here it must be kept in mind that the complexity of the disease genetic determinism can lead more and more to a clinical guidance and a sophisticated interpretation.

Erroneous labs results or inappropriate interpretation may lead to serious depression and consequently untimely death of individuals.

Consumers need reliable sources of information to get benefits of genetic screening that describes specific genetic tests as well as the actions that they could take in response to a test result to protect health or prevent disease.

The family history-based risk assessment is one of the most effective tools for predicting what diseases an individual may be at risk for developing.

This standard genetic tool is used to identify those at moderate and high risks of disease predisposition, and is particularly useful for cancer risk assessment.

The benefits are being seen principally in the medical areas. In fact, there are many diseases, such as Alzheimer’ disease, familial breast cancer and cystic fibrosis, which can be detected early by using genetic probes. An early detection of genetic disease may prevent symptoms development by providing an early medical assistance.

The other interesting aspect is to identify genes of disease resistance from human population so that these, in the future, may eventually be used for gene therapy.

Genetic information can only be delivered to customers if doctors are armed with knowledge, but in Pakistan medical schools lack molecular geneticists and thus medical graduates are incapable of facing future challenges in the field of molecular genetics.

HABIB HYDER LAGHARI Canada