Sola Ojo, Kaduna and Fred Itua, Abuja
Over 150,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease in Nigeria per annum, Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Barnawa, Kaduna, Abdullahi Musa Maikano, has said.
The medical experts, who made the revelation in Kaduna, yesterday morning, during a meeting organised by a Kaduna-based non-governmental organisation, Bako Youth Development Foundation, as part of activities to mark this year’s World Sickle Cell Disease Day, said 40 million Nigerians, the highest in the world, currently live with the sickle cell disease. According to him, the disease, which is the leading genetic disease in the world, once afflicted majorly through inheritance, the condition seems irreversible although there is a contention to that.
Maikano, who settled 50 percent of the test bill said: “The best option now is prevention and that can only be achieved by going for genotype test early in life. And, thank God for a Foundation such as the one that brought us here today (yesterday), which has been creating awareness on sickle cell.
“About 40 million Nigerians are living with sickle cell disease and 150,000 babies are born annually making it the worst in the world. We need more awareness. People need to get tested before having anything close to marriage together,” he warned.
Earlier, Founder, Bako Youth Development Foundation, Andy Bako noted that sickle cell can be best addressed if young Nigerians know their genotype even before they reach age of chosen their future spouses.
The Foundation believes that, while the world await affordable and available scientific breakthrough to deal decisively with the scourge especially in poor earning settings in Sub-Saharan, the need for prevention should be at the front burner of any serious government.
Meanwhile, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has called on governments, at all levels, to make sero-diagnosis free for sickle cell patients across the country.
In a statement signed by the former Enugu State governor and made available to Daily Sun, yesterday, he also called for free counselling for all sickle cell patients and treatment in all government health facilities, including out-patient services, specifical emergency room attention and sickle cell clinics.
He said: “There should be free in-patient service in all government health facilities, and free drugs and other modalities for therapy at all government hospitals.”