DNA testing allows for much more targeted screening programmes – let’s use it to end the Viking’s curse
3 min read
Are you a Viking? With a name like mine the answer ought to be obvious but a study in my constituency posing that question has thrown up an incredible opportunity for the future of healthcare in the UK as well as shining light on our roots.
The results from DNA swap samples cross-referenced to other studies were stunning. Wilson found plenty Vikings, of course, but in Orkney and Shetland he uncovered rogue breast cancer genes. Participants, because they had signed consent forms, were informed. Lives were undoubtedly saved.
On the Atlantic coast, in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, no rogue cancers thankfully but an incredibly high level of an inherited blood disorder – haemochromatosis (HCT).
HCT – too much iron in the blood – is often known as the “Celtic curse” though it is probably more of a Viking phenomenon and an ages-old genetic response to famine. Untreated, it can lead to several conditions including cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease and arthritic symptoms.
Thankfully HCT is easily treated by venesection, essentially bloodletting, to chase iron down to normal levels. But generally it is asymptomatic and without a test easily missed or misdiagnosed.
I know so much about HCT because for the last 17 years I have had regular venesection. I am grateful to the staff at the Knutsford ward at the Royal London Hospital as I am to my younger brother who was tested and found we had the condition.
My genes mirror the make-up of my constituency. Viking Genes pinpointed the Western Isles as a hotspot for this genetic mutation. According to Professor Wilson, the numbers in the Western Isles are sufficiently high to justify population-wide screening. One in 212 people in south and eastern England carry two copies of the faulty gene versus one in 62 people in the Outer Hebrides.
The Catholic community in north west Ireland has the highest concentration of all the British Isles – one in 54 carry two faulty copies of the gene.
I agree that everyone in the Western Isles should be offered screening but I want to go further. Islanders should also offered DNA tests for the whole range of inherited conditions, from diabetes to heart disease.
This would save lives and put us two decades ahead of the rest of the country in preventative medicine.
It sounds radical but only as radical as plans to offer every baby in the UK whole genome sequencing within a decade – a plan backed by Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Genomics will put us on the front foot in healthcare and a small, defined pilot to lead the way is to hand with the high levels of HCT in the Western Isles.
Initially, I propose the cost not be borne by the NHS but be part of the community payback from the large-scale windfarms planned for the islands.
The renewables revolution is about saving the planet, but right now the consumer offer is just to reduce energy bills. We should be more ambitious. We can harness the wealth of wind funds to make communities better off, yes, but also to transform their health outcomes.
If it works in a small, discrete population – there are only 21,000 adults in the island chain – the experience and the lessons learnt could be rolled out across the UK.
The NHS in Scotland is not the ambit of the UK government but the future of health of the nation is. We Vikings in the north west with too much iron in our blood can play a big part in shaping that future.
