Sickle cell: Make genotype testing compulsory for newborns, foundation tells FG

Angela Onwuzoo

A Nigerian-American critical care and pulmonary care physician, Dr. Ngozika Orjioke has called on the Federal Government to enact a law that will make sickle cell genotype testing compulsory for newborns in Nigeria.

Orjioke, who is the co-founder of CMG Global Foundation, Atlanta, United States, said comprehensive newborn screening is critical to early detection and better management of sickle cell disease.

The physician spoke in Lagos at the donation of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound equipment to the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria by CMG Global Foundation.

She said the goal of her organisation is to improve healthcare across Nigeria through collaboration with government and private sector organisations especially those who already have something on the ground that can be built upon.

CMG Global Foundation is the brainchild of four Atlanta-based physicians- Dr. Akinloye Makanjuola, Dr. Alawode Oladele, Dr Victor Okeh, and Dr. Orjioke.

Orjioke said, “The lack of access to critical healthcare plagues a large part of our modern world as exposed by the impact of emerging diseases. CMG Global Foundation is dedicated to developing human resource capacity and building infrastructure in vulnerable communities where the lack of access to healthcare is the most pronounced.

“At CMG Global Foundation, we engage healthcare challenges, provide robust needs-based assessment tools, and network with strategic partners to address local health matters.

“Transcranial Doppler ultrasound equipment is used to measure blood flow to and within the brain to detect and prevent stroke in children with sickle cell disorder caused by a temporary state of reduced blood flow to the brain.”

She noted that CMG Global Foundation was leveraging relationships with the Atlanta-Lagos Sister Cities projects and the Sickle Cell Foundation in Georgia to begin to change the narrative of sickle cell disease in Nigeria.

She further said, “CMG Global Foundation’s goal in the sickle cell disease arena is to make TCD readily available in the six geo-political zones. The foundation will be partnering with Sky Vascular US-based group- to provide centralised training on the use of the equipment.

“It will be making more donations of the Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound equipment and training to other health care facilities across Nigeria in the coming months.

Commending the foundation for the donation, the Chief Executive Officer of Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria, Dr Annette Akinsete, said the foundation had made tremendous progress since it was registered in 1994 from advocacy for the prevention of sickle cell, especially among intending couples to treatment and management to cure.

“ Yes we can now cure sickle cell disorder in children 100 per cent because we have a bone marrow transplant centre which is domiciled in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital just across the road being a facility that requires 24-hour care just like an ICU”, Akinsete explained.

According to her, Nigeria is the “global headquarters” of Sickle Cell disorder with over 40 million Nigerians being healthy carriers of the sickle cell disorder gene (Hb As) while over 150,000 children are born yearly with sickle cell anaemia (Hb SS).

Akinsete said most of these children will die before the age of five from lack of access to early diagnosis and proper care.

However, she noted that sickle cell disorder was no longer a death sentence and could be managed and cured like any other disease if diagnosed early enough in children.

She urged intending couples to take advantage of the medical facilities and expertise at the Sickle Cell Foundation for pre-marital genotype testing or retesting and counselling to avoid the financial and emotional drain that comes from having children with sickle cell disorder.

The physician also appealed to religious bodies, traditional rulers, and opinion leaders to join the foundation in championing strong advocacy for pre-marital genotype testing and counselling to reduce the number of couples having babies with sickle cell disorder.