Aishat Otuyo, a medical practitioner with Kwara State Specialist Hospital, Alagbado, Ilorin has said that the country has the highest prevalence rate of Sickle Cell Anaemia globally.
The doctor said that Nigeria account for 91.011 out of the total of 305.773 burden of Sickle Cell disease worldwide.
Otuyo, who also stressed that the prevalence of Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA) is about 20 percent of every 1,000 live births annually, which translates into about 150,000 children born yearly with the health challenge in Nigeria.
The medical expert stated this at a one- day seminar organised by the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigerian Youths (FOMWANY), Kwara State chapter.
She explained that sickle cell disease as a generic disorder of haemoglobin, while anaemia is a condition in which there are not enough healthy red blood cell to carry adequate oxygen throughout the body.
According to her, sickle cell disease is a pan-ethnic condition with the highest prevalence among those of African descent.
“Nigeria has the highest number of homozygous cases in the world with a prevalence of sickle cell anaemia ranging between 1.5-3.1 percent (Average 2 percent).
She said that SCA can be inherited and the manifestation of the disease includes two essential pathological processes arising from sickling: haemolysis and vaso-occlusion; occurrence of sickling at the venous end of capillaries, while unsikling occurs at the arterial end which makes the cell becomes irreversibly suckled.
Sickle cell traits she noted are more resistance to malaria than those with two normal haemoglobin genes and making the gene to persist.
Otuyo, who spoke on the topic “Pre-Marital Scanning’ identified adequate nutrition and hydration, antioxidant therapy as the management of SCA, as she even said it can be prevented through genotype test, advocacy and awareness.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
