Sickle cell: NGO begs govt to curb spread, conducts 4000 genotype tests
By Adeyemi Adeleye
CrimsonBow Sickle Cell Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation, on Saturday appealed to governments to mitigate spread of sickle cell and mortality of patients at grassroots.
Miss Timi Edwin, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CrimsonBow SCI made the appeal at Project GeneEducation, a public awareness and advocacy campaign for sickle cell prevention and management it organised at Ipaja area of Lagos State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was organised in partnership with “Street2School Initiative, an NGO supporting the education of vulnerable out-of-school children.
“Federal Government can come in through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). State governments’ health insurances can come in to help these patients begging for help.
‘The Federal Government and the state governments can pump money for a lot of patients to access health care and live. We need to demystify sickle cell.
“It is only a death sentence if carriers don’t have the proper care. It is not a death sentence when people have the care. A lot of parents live old now.
“There is a lot more to do to stop bringing into the world children with sickle cell . Sickle cell is our plague we need to cure it,” the founder said.
Edwin, who noted that the initiative had been doing a lot to mitigate pains and agonies of sickle cell patients, said that the foundation had conducted genotype tests for more than 400 children in the area.
“Today we are doing out last outreach for the year. we started last year May and we have covered 10 communities in different local government areas of Lagos State.
“We are taking the sickle cell message across and sensitising people so that they don’t endanger the next generation.
“We conduct genotype test for them to identify people living with sickle cell already, inform them on who they can marry for reproduction. We have conducted about 4000 tests in the last one year.
“We also bring them under our other projects, especially a monthly free health clinic where doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other medical practitioners attend to them.
“Here, the patients see medical practitioners and get medications for free. They run blood test also for free and other services,” she said.
Edwin, who noted that most people were still uninformed of the disease, said all hands must be on deck to checkmate the spread.
The founder, who described funding as a challenge, said that the group needed more partnership with government, cooperate organisations.and spirited individuals to save more lives.
According to her, the initiative gives variety of other food items to people to draw them closer in the awareness and advocacy campaigns.
Edwin, who commended the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) for providing a one year free Health Insurance to 150 sickle cell patients to enhance healthcare for them, said more should be done.
Speaking, Mrs Oluwatosin Olowoyeye-Taiwo, the Founder of Street2School Initiative, who noted that her initiative supports education programmes of vulnerable children, commended the foundation for its commitment to saving lives.
Olowoyeye-Taiwo decried that a lot of parents were ignorant of sickle cell, saying many of them resorted to herbs when their sickle cell children were in crisis.
“The coming of Crimson Bow means a lot to us because we have series of cases with children that are sickle cell carriers going through crisis. This advocacy is an eye opener,” she said.
(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
