Sickle Cell: Consultant Prescribes Genotype S creening

In the bid to reduce the
prevalence of Sickle Cell Disorder (SCD) in the country, Nigerian have been urged to ensure genotype screening in order to be informed of their choice of persons with the appropriate hesmoglobin as life partners.
This act, it is believed would further checkmate the disappointments and trauma experienced by would be couples occasioned by the sudden knowledge of their unmatched genotype at the verge of marriage.
Speaking during his lecture titled ‘Challenges Of Sickle cell Diagnosis In Our Community’, at the World Sickle Cell Day in Port Harcourt, recently, Consultant Pediatrician, Dr. Appollos Josiah maintained that it was high time Nigerian youths did not wait till their time of marriage before getting themselves screened for their genotype adding that the prior knowledge would guide them on the partner selection thereby reducing the off-springs of sickle cell carriers and cell patients.
Josiah who is also the Chairman, Steering Committee of the Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria (SCSSN) said ,“Sickle Cell disease is an inherited disorder that is completely preventable if young people are properly informed through counseling to undergo genotype testing before marriage. This is aimed at making informed decision to marry the partner with the appropriate haemoglobin genotype and avoid the marriage between couples that are both AS or SC and AS (carriers). Therefore know your genotype before getting entangled and do it even more than once”.
Also speaking, the representative of the Rotary Club, Port Harcourt at the occasion, Dr. Patrick Ohia advocated for a policy that would create a column for Genotype on the Children’s National Immunization Cards stating that this would keep every Nigerian on the know of their genotype and further reduce the burden of Sickle cell in nation.
Ohia said “the Rotary Club is approaching this fight from the primary, not secondary perspective. Ignorance is a major challenge to this cause and it has to be tackled from the right point. There is no policy that places every Nigerian on the compulsory knowledge of his or her genotype unlike in the developed societies, like the UK, America and others.
The Club would tackle sickle cell just like it tackled polio and to achieve this I call on our policy makers to make a policy that would include a column for genotype on our immunisation cards so that just as the babies were being immunised at that tender age, they are also screened of their genotype and they grow having that knowledge while choosing their lifestyles and partners”.
Ohia further called for the availability of the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), genotype screening machine in all the local governments across the nation for easy access and testing.
Participants at the programme however decried the wrong diagnosis of the HPLC machine stating that it had contributed to the high rate of the disorder in the state.
In her reaction, the Rivers State Coodinator, Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria, Dr. Dorathy A. Okoh stated that the HPLC machine at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialists Hospital (BMSH) was of good quality saying “apart from the good result it offers, the HPLC machine also helps to manage the patient because there are other variances in the process and it helps to detect them”.
Okoh who noted that the HPLC machine was expensive, called for the support of stakeholders so that it can be purchased and placed at designated centres for easy access and result.