World Sickle Cell Day 2022: What You Need To Know - Nurse Abdullahi MUSA

World sickle cell day was enacted by the United Nations to be celebrated on 19 June each year with the aim of creating awareness of sickle cell disease, its prevention, and the challenges faced by sickle cell disease patients. 

Often people are getting married but genotype testing and premarital screening seem to be neglected and dodged by numerous intended couples although, through genotype testing and premarital screening actual genotype status can be revealed so that you can know the right partner for marriage best on genotype status. 

Knowing this, why do you subject yourself to a risky life in favor of love without taking into consideration the consequences that may come up when your genotype and that of your partner remain unknown to both of you? For you to have a single sickle cell disease child in the family is a great challenge to the child and also to the family economically and otherwise, but this can be addressed by encouraging genotype testing before marriage and knowing the right partner to marry with can limit the rate at which the sickle cell disease is occurring. 

Sickle cell disease is among the hereditary diseases that can only be inherited when both the parents are sickle cell disease patients or have sickle cell traits. An individual with genotype AA is healthy having two normal genes, AS refers to sickle cell trait (carrier) harboring one normal gene A and one faulty gene S which he/she can't manifest any signs and symptoms of sickle cell disease but the chance of transmitting it to the offspring(s) is there, SS refers to sickle cell disease individual harboring two faulty genes SS. However, the genotype status of a child can be determined and predicted by the genotype statuses of the parents; normally a child receives one gene from each parent for instance when both the mother and the father are SS all their children will be having sickle cell disease because one faulty gene (S) will be donated to each child by the mother and another faulty gene (S) by the father, S+S is equal to SS, people with this shouldn't marry. 

Similarly, when both parents are sickle cell traits i.e mother AS, father AS, and unfortunately both parents donated faulty genes S+S to the child he/she will be sickle cell disease child, if one of the parents donated one healthy gene A and the other one donated faulty gene S the child will be sickle cell trait AS (carrier), when both parents donated healthy genes A+A the child will be healthy, having two normal genes (AA). 

Sickle cell disease attack the red blood cell (RBC) that is responsible for the transportation of oxygen within the body tissues via the aid of hemoglobin. RBC is one of the cellular components of the blood that is non-nucleated and disc-like in shape, for a healthy individual RBC's life span is 120 days. However, the shape of the RBC of the sickle cell disease individual resembles the shape of the crescent moon which aggregates into the joints and causes severe pain, thus, the life span is lesser than that of a healthy individual (80_100days). Other signs and symptoms of sickle cell disease include paleness of the body, headache, fatigue, low oxygen in the body, jaundice, shortness of breath, swelling of hands and feet, frequent infection, and hemolytic anemia. 

In the view of the foregoing, below are the types of genotypes: 

• AA 
• AS 
• AC 
• SS 
• SC 
• CC

Furthermore, AA can marry to both AA, AS or SS is normal hence the result of their children will be in combination of AA and AS or AS for all children when married to SS; for AS and AS to marry is fair due to the fact that their offsprings will be in combination of AA, AS and SS mathematically 25%, 50%, 25%. Therefore, the chance of sickle cell disease occurrence is there, in fact, it's not advisable. For SS to marry SS this is too bad in the sense that all their children will be sickle cell disease children. Going through all these let us subject ourselves to proper genotype tests, and premarital screening and seek medical advice when it comes to the selection of the right partner for marriage.
Although, some people misunderstood genotype, blood group, and rhesus factor which they're entirely different. Genotype refers to the genetic code of an individual, i.e everything someone inherited from his/her parents, blood group indicates which type of blood an individual has to be it A, B, AB, or O while the rhesus factor indicates the present or absent of antigen D in the surface of red blood cell, when it's present an individual is positive (+) and negative (_) when it's not there. It's advisable for the intending couples to combine all these tests in addition to hepatitis and HIV tests among other essential tests.

Subsequently, in terms of medical treatment sickle cell disease is very difficult to cure and can only be done by bone marrow transplant. However, transplanting is very difficult as it requires so many funds, expertise and time are not advisable due to some adverse effects that might come up, such as tissue rejection. 

Therefore, if we can all put our hands together by knowing our genotypes before marriage, subject ourselves to premarital screening and seek medical advice for the right partner to marry, I believe sickle cell disease will be transformed into history. 

Finally, I'm encouraging the intending couples and the masses to know their genotype before deeply falling into each other. Verily, sickle cell disease is catastrophic, I deeply sympathize with the victims and the health challenges they're undergoing through. May Allah ease the burden on all sickle cell disease patients across the globe. 

Nr. Abdullahi Musa, Ambassador of sickle cell disease, Sickle cell disease counselor. muserabdullahi01@gmail.com