Quinta Health, an NGO, has said that it would work with other NGOs to screen secondary school students in Kwara on genotype with the growing rate of sickle cell disease in the country.
SEE ALSO: Uzodinma Sworn-In As Imo State Governor: Fr Mbaka, Oshiomhole Attend (Photos)
The Founder of the organisation, Dr Babatunde Adewumi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that it was imperative for youths and adolescents to know their genotype status to forestall giving birth to sickle cell carriers.
Adewumi said the organisation would take the screening to selected secondary schools in the state so as to catch them young on what they should be wary of.
He said the screening would be in the third quarter of the year.
”Due to the increased rate of sickle cell anaemia, we have in mind to work with one or two NGOs to screen secondary school students, especially SS3 students for their genotype.
”This is because the rate of non-compatible partners getting married now is alarming, so we need to enlighten them as early as possible.”
The medical expert added that the screening was one of the organisation’s programmes for the year.
He, however, noted that the genotype screening was a slight deviation from the breast and cervical cancer screening the NGO has carved a niche in.
”Our point of reference is basically screening, we conduct medical outreach of all forms of screening, be it blood pressure, blood sugar, prostate cancer, cervical cancer and breast cancer.
”Meanwhile, we have been able to carve a niche and get strong in the area of cervical and breast cancer screening and that is what we have been known for since inception.
”We have been able to hold our ground on breast and cervical cancer.
”We worked with an NGO in Enugu State to develop a cervical screening centre and another one in Gombe State to develop their private modus operandi for cervical cancer screening,” Adewumi said.
He added that the NGO has conducted medical outreaches across the six geopolitical zones in the country in less than two years of its inception.
”We have been able to effectively screen about 1,000 women for both breast and cervical cancer from about 100 outreaches conducted across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
”Right now, we have our presence in the six geopolitical zones as we have worked in Imo, Abuja, Suleja, Enugu, Gombe, Lagos, Ibadan and Osun.
”We have spread our tentacles and we are now stronger than when we started.
”This is because we now have more hands working with us and now, we have been able to train more people to do what we do in such a way that I don’t have to be somewhere to get our work done,” Adewumi said.