Senate Passes Bill To Control Sickle Cell Anaemia In Nigeria

Senate has passed a bill seeking to control and manage a genetically inherited disease – Sickle Cell Anaemia in Nigeria. The passage of the bill comes after the consideration of a report by the Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) on Tuesday’s plenary. Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC-Kwara), in his presentation, explained that sickle cell anaemia was a disease inherited from haemoglobin disorder (SS) from either or both parents of a child which affects nearly 100 million people globally. Oloriegbe warned that the disease has the potential of affecting the nation’s aspiration of attaining Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – Good Health and Well-being, except special attention, was paid to the prevention and management of the disease. He added that the bill would establish the much needed legal framework for the prevention, control, and management of the continuous spread of the disease, and also avert early deaths and unnecessary medical expenses by families. He said, “The bill will strengthen existing structure, encourage and strengthen support groups and other groups to be able to assess the effectiveness or otherwise of the control strategies in place to eliminate sickle cell disease.”