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“When in love, please go for test to know your sickle cell status,” is the slogan being trumpeted by the Sickle Cell Condition Advocates (SICCA), a non-governmental organisation to educate the youth on the sickle cell disease.

As part of the campaign, the SICCA, in partnership with the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GCAA), has launched the first sickle cell pre-conception screening project to create awareness of the sickle cell disease.

Anchored on the theme: “Sickle Cell is Preventable; Know your Sickle Cell Status”, the project seeks to encourage pre-conception screening among the youth to enable them to make informed decisions. 

Among other objectives, the initiative will identify, support and liaise with social activists and other organisations with similar objectives, solicit for funds to assist people with sickle cell, assist in the establishment of special clinics and also organise workshops for both health professionals and the public for further enlightenment.

At the launch of the project in Accra, a Deputy Minister of Health, Ms Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah, said the high burden of Sickle Cell Diseases (SCDs) in Africa, including Ghana led to intensified campaigns and declarations over the last decade.

She commended the SICCA for the initiative and the partnership with all stakeholders to address the issue of prevention after undertaking a successful pilot project to ascertain the country’s status of SCD, using the three regions of the north as a test case, focusing, especially on the youth.

Prevalence

According to her, Ghana and other countries in West and Central Africa had been identified to have the highest prevalence rate of SCD and related disorders with about 20 to 30 per cent of the people in those areas being carriers.

A pilot screening programme for SCD in Ghana, she said confirmed that approximately two per cent, translating to 16,000 babies were born with the condition each year.

The situation, she said called for a holistic attempt to provide clinical, health, educational, social and psychological care for the affected, as well as unaffected populations.

Ms Mensah said the physical, emotional and financial stress that people with the SCD and their families went through, the high prevalence rate, coupled with the lack of knowledge of the management and care of those affected by the condition and inadequate