Miss Sante NW Exhorts Population To Know Genotype

 The recently crowned Miss Sante North West 2021, has continued her journey through embarking on health projects one of which is on sickle cell disease. To push forward the drive for her chosen project, Miss Sante North West, Tata Sonita Bonkar organized in Bamenda on Wednesday, October 20,2021 a training aimed at raising awareness of the disease with focus on child and pregnant women who constitute the most danger points for the sickle cell disease.

Miss Sante 2021 NW with some participants at the training.

Bringing together some stakeholders for the training, Miss Sante North West encouraged all and sundry to help in stopping the propagation of stigmatization perpetrated on sickle cell patients. While schooling participants , Tata Sonita Bonkar reveiled that 20% of Cameroonians are sickle cell carriers and need to know much more of their genotype so as to know how to avert from being a sickler. 

Sickle Cell disease which is an autosomal recessive condition which is gotten from two copies of a gene, makes matters worst when one is still a toddler or pregnant reasons being that at that stage especially for children, they do not yet know how to take care of themselves and likewise their parents still discovering how to cope with the disease in their child. With every sickler varying from each other in relation to treatment and crises faced by the carriers, the myths surrounding the sickle cell disease like a sickler not living up to 21 years of age and other myths were debunked as not true with regards to the sickle cell disease.

Miss Sante 2021 NW, Tata Sonita Bonkar.

One of the sub projects envisaged by Miss Sante North West is to have a clinic only for sickle cell patients so much so that they are well taken care of without their pain not being really felt by some general medical practitioners in hospitals around.

To what motivated Miss Sante North West to embark on a sickle cell awareness campaign, she pointed out that "alot of people are living with sickle cell and it is a minority in the society thou it is affecting the Cameroonian population with about 20% being sickle cell carriers and if not treated the number may triple in the future and sickle cell is that disease which should be treated and properly handled and as well heard and prevented. Every sickler is vulnerable and have a weak immune system but with kids and pregnant women, it is more dangerous given that it goes to delay growth and with lots of complications." 

Demonstration chart at the training.

With participants drilled on sickle cell which boils down to the importance of knowing their genotype, they were educated that there exist four hemoglobin genotypes in humans which are: AS,AA,SS and AC with the sickle cell trait being the SS and AC genotypes. Given that each human being has a specific pair of blood inherited from both parents, knowing ones hemoglobin genotype before chosing a life partner is important because there may be compatibility issues which could have devastating effects when it comes to conception. Worth noting is that AA can marry anybody, AS is better off with AA, AS and AS, AS and SS are too risky while two sickle cell carriers are advised to avoid conception.

Sickle cell anemia or sickle cell disease is a genetic disease of the red blood cells which normally are shaped in the form of a disc which gives them the flexibility to travel through even the smallest blood vessels. However, with this disease, the red blood cells have an abnormal crescent shape resembling a sickle which makes them sticky and rigid and prone to getting trapped in small vessels which blocks blood from reaching different parts of the body and causes pain and tissue damage. The sickle cell disease is caused by inheriting the sickle cell gene and not caused by anything the parents did before or during the pregnancy and one cannot get the disease from someone who has it.

By Peter Tasi