World Sickle-cell Awareness Day; How Cross River State Celebrated

Our Correspondent|20 June 2017 

Since 2008, World Sickle Cell Awareness Day has been held annually, in order to help increase public knowledge and raise awareness of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and the struggles sufferers and their families go through. The date was chosen to commemorate the day on which a resolution was officially adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, recognising SCD as a public health concern.

In Cross River State, hospitals offer sickle-cell counselling and Genotype testing and also cater to patients at low cost depending on the severity of the complications as a way of creating sickle-cell awareness. 

Sickle-cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary blood disorder, characterized by an abnormality in the oxygen carrying hemoglobin molecule in red blood cells. Affected cells assume an abnormal sickle-like shape, hence the name of the disease. 

SCD affects millions of people around the world, including both adults and children. It is a potentially fatal disease and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is one of the main causes of premature death amongst children under the age of five in various African countries.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera the president of the Sickle Cell Aid Foundation in Abuja Bukola Bolarinwa, Nigeria has the highest number of people living with sickle cell in the world, with little or no funds to treat the disorder. "You have millions of people living with sickle cell, hundreds of thousands of births every year, way more than HIV, way more than cancer and a lot of other diseases that get way more funds…Sickle cell doesn’t get enough publicity." 

SCD may lead to a number of complications, some of which may cause death. The most common health problems associated with SCD are sickle-cell crisis (an acute condition characterized with severe pain attacks), severe infections and stroke. These complications can be prevented, but only if a person with SCD has access to adequate health care facilities.The highest frequency of the disorder is found in tropical regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and the West Indies.