DO YOU KNOW YOUR GENOTYPE? Its important for u to know your genotype(or your partners). Haemoglobin(Hb) genotype is simply d type of Hb present in d blood of an individual. It can be determined in d medical laboratory by a test called Hb electrophoresis. Knowing your Hb genotype is of great importance because of public health significance of Sickle Cell Disease(SCD), which may result from medically incompatible marriage. Examples of various types of Hb genotype are Hb AA, AS, AC, SS, SC &CC. Hb AS &AC are carriers of SCD. Fellow Africans, please, before u enter into any of these -SHIPS; friendSHIP, dateSHIP, relationSHIP, courtSHIP, and most importantly marriageSHIP(lol!), u need to know your genotype. If your genotype is AS, AC or SS, its crucial u marry some1 whose genotype is AA. If some1 with any of d above genotypes marries another with genotype aside AA, there is a risk of giving birth to a child with sickle cell disease(SCD) i.e. SS or SC. For instance, if a woman who is AS marries a man who is also AS, there is 1/4 probability of having a child with genotype SS(or SC in d case of union between AS & AC) in every conception and if unfortunate, this can occur repeatedly. My people, if u have ever seen some1 with SCD during crisis like severe pain(or any other complication), u would like to try as much as possible to prevent its occurrence. Its noteworthy to know that 2 out of every 100 Nigerian children have SCD &40% of SCD patients worldwide are Nigerians(as a result of Nigerias population); d incidence is also high in other African countries(W.H.O). The high incidence in Africa is majorly due to prevalence of Malaria because sickle cell patients thrive better in Malaria endemic nations. There4, its our collective responsibility to reduce this incidence by encouraging premarital genotype determination/testing &marriage counseling to ensure medically compatible marriage(s). Pls, dont allow love to blindfold u; its all about care of d innocent child(ren). Management of a child(or children) with SCD may be very tasking, worrisome &costly; so, prevention is better than cure. To cap it all, try to know your genotype(if u dont know yet) &lets join our hands together to reduce the high incidence of SCD in Africa. God Bless u all!
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 08:31:22 +0000
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