Know your sickle cell status before marriage’- Public advised
The Head of Sickle Cell Association and Physician Assistance at the SDA Hospital has advised persons with sickle cell to desist from having many children, at most 2 or 3 and must also space their birth to ensure good health.
Nana Ama Asiedu Francisca 
The general public has been advised to know their sickle cell status before settling down for marriage to help reduce the number of people with the condition.
Head of Sickle Cell Association and Physician Assistance at the SDA Hospital, Mrs Angelina Amoatemaa Korang made this observation on Ark FM Health Matters on June 23, 2021monitored by Soiree News.
According to her, the only sure way of not producing sickle cell children was to know one’s status. Mrs Korang explained that sickle cell disorder is a genetic condition, which affects your red blood cells, meaning it is passed on from parents and an individual is born with it.
Sickle cell disorder causes the normally round and flexible blood cells to become stiff and sickle-shaped, stopping the blood cells, and the oxygen they carry, from being able to move freely around the body and causing pain.
This can cause episodes of severe pain. She added that people with sickle cell are also at risk of complications stroke, acute chest syndrome, blindness, bone damage and priapism (a persistent, painful erection of the penis).
She however noted that the condition is incurable as it can only be managed.
She also advised persons with sickle cell to desist from having many children, at most 2 or 3 and must also space their birth to ensure good health. She also called for support for sickle cell patients.
