Obiageli Nnodu, the Director, Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training (CESRTA), has called on the federal government to create a budgetary allocation to help address sickle-cell disease in the country.

Mrs Nnodu made the call on Thursday, in Gwagwalada, at the Sickle Pan African Consortium NigEria Network (SPARC-NEt) stakeholders engagement and interactive workshop between researchers and sickle-cell patients to improve care.

“The government should have budgetary allocation for sickle-cell disease starting with newborn screening and there should be legislation support National Health Insurance for sickle-cell patients.

“There should be a budget for research for sickle-cell disease and newly delivered mothers in the country should also take newborn screening for sickle cell seriously for healthy living,” Mrs Nnodu said.

The workshop aimed to engage critical stakeholders, patients, caregivers, health workers, policymakers, and the media on the nature of sickle-cell disease.

According to her, the workshop was to also ascertain the challenges patients face in accessing care and the best way to provide the services and follow up actively in the clinics at the SPARC-NEt sites.

“Sickle cell disease is highly prevalent in Nigeria, according to the National Demographic survey 2018, 20 per cent of children ages 6-59 months have SCT (HbAS) and two per cent have the hemoglobin C trait (HbAC).

“Sickle cell disease is a debilitating condition which can lead to severe health problems like pain, organ damage or failure, infections, stroke, headache, liver problems, and so many others.” she said. 

(NAN)