The Federal Government has revealed that over 15,000 children are born annually with Sickle Cell in the country.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute made this revelation during an event to mark this year’s World Sickle Cell Day in Abuja.
Awute said “It is estimated that over 40 million Nigerians have the sickle cell trait. Tackling sickle cell disease is an unfinished business of the MDGs and would need to be prioritised in the post-2015 development era.”
He also explained why the government cannot propose legislation on marriage between two sickle cell patients, he said “Ours is a democracy and you will find that before people talk about marriage, they are already in a relationship. Then love comes in and love is blind. That is why we do want to have that kind of confrontational approach.
“We believe very strongly that people who marry and later begin to see these complications in their children are usually unaware of what would be the associated consequences of that marriage. For such people, if they were aware, the story may be different.
“Awareness creation and sensitisation for us is the veritable tool for the reduction of this type of situation in our population for now. There are lot of people, because they have not been told the complications and the pains the sufferers go through. If they tell them not to marry, they will ask whether you are their God. That is why the type of sensitisation that we are talking about is very important.”