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Know sickle cell status before falling in love – Sickle cell advocate
Prof. Otchere Addo
Young adults with intention to marry in future have been advised to check and know their sickle cell status before falling in love.
The Founder of the Sickle Cell Condition Advocates (SICCA), Ms Charlotte Owusu, who gave the advice said this was crucial to prevent people from marrying partners who have the sickle cell in their genes.
That, she noted, would expose them to the life-threatening implications of the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).
“Some of the experiences SCD patients go through can be harrowing. We are advocating prevention of sickle cell which is the best. It is to know your status so that you don’t marry someone of the same status.
The religious bodies have a huge role to play. They are the people would-be couples to go for marriage counselling and when they detect sickle cell, they ask them not to marry but is that the right time? We must educate the people to screen before falling in love and disclose early in the relationship before it gets deep and difficult to pull out,” she explained.
Ms Owusu shared the advice with The Spectator at the launch of a National SCD policy to improve comprehensive and coordinated healthcare services for patients across the country.
The Founder, who shared her existed experience of the condition, having given birth to two SCD children, lost one and suffered a failed marriage, advised Ghanaians, especially the youth not to downplay the condition which poses health, economic and social burden.
“Prevention is key even though treatment like hydroxyurea, penicillin, folic acid and bone marrow transplant, among others are available,” she said.
One in four Ghanaians is to have the haemoglobin S or C gene, which indicates carriage of the sickle cell trait.
According to national estimates, nine out of 10 people in Ghana are unaware of their SCD status.
Meanwhile, about 15,000 to 20,000 babies are born with SCD in Ghana every year, representing two per cent of all live births.
One in every 50 children born in Ghana would have a sickle cell disease with 50 to 90 per cent of them dying before their fifth birthday
By Abigail Annoh