Sickle-Education Panacea

A healthy nation they say is a wealthy Nation. The prevalence of diseases in Africa is an obvious factor that has stunted its economic growth for decades.   An example is the prevalence of sickle cell diseases on the African continent.  Sickle cell disorder is by far the commonest inherited disorder in the world and three quarters of cases occur in Africa. It is estimated that the Sickle Cell Disease affects 90,000 to 100,000 Americans, occurs among about 1 out of every 36,000 Hispanic-American births, while SCD occurs among about 1 out of every 500 Black or African-American births. In Nigeria, where it affects two out of every hundred children born, it causes suffering for innumerable patients and their families. Statistics revealed that about 68% of children die at age 0 – 3years and due to delicate nature of the male child, many male child die between this stage while four out of every five survival tends to be a female child, thus, making girls and women major sufferers of the sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disorder is an inherited haemoglobin disorder comprising sickle cell anaemia (Hb SS) and some less prevalent but related conditions such as sickle haemoglobin C disorder (Hb SC) and sickle beta thalassaemia (Hb SBthal). The genes for these conditions arose by mutation but proliferated in
areas where there is or there was a high incidence of falciparium malaria, the most lethal strain of malaria known to man.

SCD has major social and economic implications for the affected child as well as the family. Recurrent sickle-cell crises interfere with the patient’s life, especially with regard to education, work and psychosocial development. Presently, there is no cure for SCD. However, cost-effective treatment exists for the pain and other aspects of the disease. Despite its importance, until now there has been no dedicated sickle cell centre in Africa. 

Apart from Creating or strengthening of national sickle-cell disease control programmes, surveillance and research, comprehensive care, the most potent weapon in eradicating SCD is prevention through awareness and education. Children as well as young adults should be aware of their blood genotype status, while a lot of counselling is needed to inform on how a single decision of choosing a wrong blood partner could mar the lives of generations unborn, and eventually destroy relationships. In a country like Nigeria for instance where 56 million people are illiterate, one could not but imagine the extent of damage that has been done to its citizens, particularly women and children and the economic cost to the nation as whole. This implies that a government that deprives its people of education deprives them not only of how to read and write, but of health and wealth while it subjects them to abject poverty and death.

It’s time we start insisting on our rights as Africans, to have zero tolerance for any government that does not make education its priority. As we hope that our governments should be sensitive to our needs; we also should take active responsibility of demanding our rights to secure a better future for our generations.tt