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About 30 million Nigerians are carriers of sickle cell disease, while 2.4 million Nigerians are actually suffering from it, according to the director of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria.
About 30 million Nigerians are carriers of sickle cell disease, while 2.4 million Nigerians are actually suffering from it, according to the director of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria.
About 30 million Nigerians are carriers of sickle cell disease, while 2.4 million Nigerians are actually suffering from it, according to the director of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria.
"One out of every four Nigerians is a carrier of sickle cell gene. This means he can pass the disease to his offspring," Sadiq Sulaiman Wali said Sunday, speaking at an event to revive the Foundation in Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.
"Sickle cell carriers have the chance of passing the disease to one out of four children they may have," said Wali, a former health commissioner in Kano.
"This means we really have to do more to contain this menace just like we give attention to HIV-AIDS sensitisation. We should also endeavour to educate Nigerians of the dangers of the spread of the disease," said the physician, trained in British and US medical schools.
He urged intending couples to go for voluntary genetic counselling to determine their sickle cell status, just as they do for HIV-AIDS.
Wali said it was very frightening to know that sickle cell disease is always found in countries where malaria is endemic, and particularly among black people.
Sickle cell anaemia is a hereditary blood disease caused by chemically abnormal haemoglobin in the red blood cells, occuring almost exclusively among blacks.
Characteristics of the disease, for which there is no cure, include fever, anaemia, pain in the joints and abdomen.