Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that causes red blood cells to become misshapen and break down.
Also sickle cell is a blood disorder in which the haemoglobin is damaged and can’t carry oxygen to the tissues.
In accordance to this, Dr. Kyeremeh Johnson at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital revealed that, sickle cell disease is a blood disorder that a child is born with and it is passed down through a parents genes.
According to Dr. Johnson, about 2% approximately 15,000 new born babies annually have sickle cell diseases and every decade almost 150,000 new born babies are more likely to get sickle cell disease.
As part of the numbers of sickle cell patient, he urged parents to observe their kids if there are signs and symptoms of abnormalities in their children and if their kids develop yellowish eye color, pains at their joints and chest are signs of sickle cell and they should send them to hospital for check up.
He urged parents to allow their new born babies to be screened, it does no harm to their health.
“If your kids develop such signs, kindly let him or her drinks enough water to allow free flowing of blood through the veins and parents shouldn’t think kids with sickle cell are abnormal but rather is a blood disorder that a child is born genetically with.
“Sickle cell patient shouldn’t be exposed to extremes of temperatures, because if you are exposed to extremes of temperatures, if you do so, you are at an increase chance of developing crises.” He added
He lastly urged parents to allow their children sleep under treated mosquito nets to prevent them from getting malaria because by getting malaria provokes the crises.
