Burdened by the lack of appropriate care and management of sickle cell anaemia in Nigeria that has resulted to loss of lives, a survivor, Anne Welsh has charged the government to provide adequate infrastructure and funding for treatment to improve lives of people living with the blood disorder.

Welsh, 38, who was born in Nigeria, but resides in the United Kingdom, said living with sickle cell anaemia in Nigeria is very challenging as the country’s healthcare system lacks the appropriate and basic necessity needed to manage the blood disorder, as she watched many lost their lives, which made her parents moved her abroad, where it is being managed.

Sickle cell anemia or disease is a disorder of the blood cell caused by an inherited abnormal hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein within the red blood cells), which causes health problems.Welsh, a mother of two, noted that sickle cell does not only cause the patients to suffer severe pain, but is also one of the biggest contributor to mental health issues due to stigmatisation, discrimination and victimisation of the patients, who are prevented from doing certain things like their normal counterpart.

“Sickle cell is an agonising thing. People don’t know the amount of pain sickle cell patients undergo. They look normal outside, but have invisible pain within, which is so excruciating that they want to end their lives. Some patients, due to the pain keep asking their doctors to give them more pain killers because they can’t endure the pains,” she stressed.

She maintained that Nigeria needs the right infrastructure, care and treatment for people born and living with sickle cell, to enable the country manage its population with the blood disorder appropriately in order to reduce mortality and morbidity as well as help elongate their lives, while they also become less of a liability to their families and care givers.

On how the illness can be managed in the patients, Welsh said they (patients) should take more water, eat good food their body crave for at any moment, engage in exercise and avoid stress, which she said is the biggest killer of people with sickle cell as it causes severe and uncontrollable pains.

“A lot of people don’t know what sickle cell is and because of that, they seek remedies from religious houses, traditional places and other places, which worsens their situation. The health sector needs to do more by creating awareness of this blood disease and giving the right treatment to people living with it to help them live longer,” she added further emphasised the need for funding herbal medicines in the treatment and management of sickle cell, which she said helped sustained her whenever she experienced crisis from the illness.