Ngozi Okpalakunne
1 August 2007
Lagos — Sickle Cell disease is a blood disorder. The disorder is characterized by the presence of blood components (erythrocytes) that contain haemoglobin's (Hb-S), an abnormal gene.
The fact is that you cannot catch the disorder from another person. Either you are born with it or you are not. And so individuals with small amount of Hb-S are referred to as carriers who have a 50 per cent chance of giving their children the sickle cell gene.
Report revealed that about four million Nigerians out of the ten million sicklers worldwide suffer from sickle cell disease and many die needlessly.
According to Chairman, Nigeria sickle cell foundation, Olu Akinyanju no fewer than 150,000 Nigeria children are born annually with the sickle cell anaemia.
Akinyanju who spoke in a press briefly recently also said that the country is ranked 15th, in sickle cell in Africa.
Medical experts, are of the view that sickle cell anaemia occurs because the individual is homozygous for Hb-S, Meaning that he has inherited a gene for the abnormal haemoglobin from each parent.
In this case, a large amount of haemoglobin S is present in the victim. Therefore the victim suffers more crises than carries.
A typical sickle-cell results in excruciating pain in bones and joints crises are unpredictable, they can occur rarely or as often as every month.
Symptoms often appear after the child reaches the age of six months. One of the first signs is painful swelling of the hands or the feet or both. The child may cry frequently and not eat much.
The whites of the eyes may appear yellow. The tongue lips and palms may be paler than normal.
Sickle cells no doubt, increase the sticky nature of the blood thereby hindering the free flow through.
A severe crisis can also disrupt the work of the brain, the lungs, the heart, the kidneys, and spleen - sometimes with fatal consequences.
Leg ulcers in the ankle region may persist for years children risk seizures or strokes.
Those with sickle cell anaemia are especially prone to infections diseases, since the disorder weakens natural defences.
Of course not everyone with sickle Cell anaemia develops all these symptoms.
And some do not experience problems until they reach their late teens.
The fact still remains that there is no cure for sickle cell anaemia, as a result individual with abnormal genes, As and SS should not marry anyone with same kinds of gene, in order not ot propagate the gene.
Medical experts maintained that AA genotype is normal, while AS indicated the sickle cell trait and makes a person a carrier and the SS makes a person a suffer.
Contrary to the notion that carriers and sufferers have only one chance out of four births, of having a victim, experts revealed that there is a risk of having a dufferer or sickle child in every pregnancy.
They stressed the need for single individuals who want to go into marriage to confirm their genotypes and ensure they don't marry people with risky genotypes.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
