Over 200 patients of Sickle Cell have in a meeting held on Saturday, 11th February 2012 at the offices of the Sierra Leone Sickle Cell Society called on government to intervene in their welfare issue regarding the provision of treatment similar to that provided for persons living with HIV and AIDS and other fatal diseases including tuberculosis.
The call came in the wake of the World Sickle Cell Day to be observed on June 19th February 2012 for which the society has disclosed it plans to hold a number of activities aimed at highlighting the seriousness and dangers of the sickle cell disease. Sickle Cell is a hereditary disease and is reportedly not healable.
Programme Coordinator at the society, Mrs. Amelia Garber said sickle cell is as deadly as HIV and AIDS but that government is not giving the seriousness it deserves as it does to other like diseases. She said hundreds of men and women, boys and girls die of sickle cell every year and lamented that that record has not caused any alarm to warrant government’s intervention. According to her, treatment for the disease is expensive and that only government and its influence can step up with the cost of its treatment and care.
Mrs. Garber said the society’s calendar of events for 2012 will include: health education on the disease, provision of maintenance treatment and essential drugs to members, genetic counselling among many others. She disclosed that the calendar activities will also include forming Sickle Cell Disease Clubs in schools. She furthered that the society will scale up its community sensitization activities to increase public awareness about the disease. The Programme Coordinator disclosed the society’s expectation of funding support from UNICEF for its activities marking the World Sickle Cell Day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Raymond Leslie Jarrett founder of the Sickle Cell Anaemia Relief Foundation in the USA made a donation of US$ 700 in support of the society’s 2012 plan of activities. In 2010, he made a similar donation in the sum of $500. He encouraged the society members to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the society and promised to continue providing support to the society.
By Emmanuella Kallon
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