Sickle Cell Help Initiative, a Bauchi-based NGO, said the organisation had registered more than 200 sickle cell anaemia patients in the state in February.
Mrs Fatima Bayero, state, Coordinator of the NGO, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi, on Wednesday.
Bayero said that the data for the number of patients was generated from only five out of the 323 wards in the state.
She said that the rate at which people with the ailment visited the NGO was worrisome, adding, “infants and children were mostly seen as patients’’.
She said a holistic approach should be employed to ensure that intended couples adhered to the law on pre-wedding test on genotype, among other diseases.
“The patients coming to the facilities are children and infants, this clearly explains that people are still not adhering to the pre-test of genotype before wedding.
“From just one or two wards in Bauchi local government area, we were able to capture 200 patients.
“This figure indicated that people are not aware of the law; awareness must be created collectively to save our future generation,” she said.
NAN reports that the state law 2017 provides for compulsory HIV/AIDS and genotype tests before marriage and further prohibits stigmatisation, discrimination of HIV/AIDS patients and other related purposes. (NAN)
