World Sickle Cell Day marked annually on June 19, calls for the building and strengthening of Global Sickle Cell Communities, Formalizing New-born Screening and Knowing your Sickle Cell Disease Status.
It also aims to increase public knowledge and an understanding of sickle cell disease, and the challenges experienced by patients, their families and caregivers.
Now we often hear the term sickle cell and wonder what this means, well Sickle cell disease known as SCD, or sickle cell anemia, is a major genetic disease that affects most countries in the African Region.
According to the World Health Organization, It is estimated that 50% to 90% of infants born with sickle cell in sub-Saharan Africa die before 5 years old.
In Ghana for instance, as you will hear in the cause of the program, 2 per cent of all births are sickle cell born.
Quick reminder, there are five distinct types of blood genotype. They are AA, AS, AC, SS, and SC. While the first 2 pairs – AA & AS are normal, AC is rare and the latter two – SS, SC are irregular and anomalous, commonly causing sickle cell disease.