Wage sustained campaign on sickle cell, others

 Dear Editor,

I read in the last edition of your esteemed newspaper a story about sickle cell and an advice to the youth, especially hoping to get married, to be aware of their sickle cell status before falling in love.

That is a very important call on the youth in my view because of the lack of awareness on the condition which has the tendency to affect one’s ability to live a decent life.

Sadly, awareness creation on some of these medical conditions have not been sustained ones.

Just like the breast cancer disease and many others, we often wait for particular periods earmarked for awareness on the existence and management of these diseases.

Although it is good enough to set aside particular days, weeks and months to thoroughly deliberate on some of the medical mishaps, it is equally important to wage a sustained programme to always referesh the minds of the people of these conditions.

Sickle cell for instance is one of the health conditions one don’t hear very often but its implication can prematurely curtail one’s life.

The youth must be aware of its existence and the importance in knowing status before falling in love.

For me, the education must even stretch beyond falling in love since there are those who also engage in casual sex. They can also be caught up in this web and in the case of pregnancy with both have the S OR c genes, then it becomes likely to have a sickle cell baby.

I want to appeal to the authorities to make those calls very regular for the youth to be aware.

Ofori Mike,

La