The Senate has passed a bill to control and manage sickle cell anaemia, a genetically inherited disease in Nigeria.
It was reported that the passage of the bill followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) at plenary on Tuesday.
Chairman of the Committee Yahaya Oloriegbe in his presentation, explained that sickle cell anaemia was a disease and inherited disorder of Haemoglobin (SS) from either or both parents of a child affecting nearly 100 million people globally.
He noted that Nigeria ranks first in the world as a sickle cell endemic country and was declared by the World Health Organisation, WHO in 2006, as the capital of sickle cell disease in the world.
Oloriegbe, however warned that the disease had the potential of affecting Nigeria’s aspiration of attaining Goal-3, Good Health and Well-being of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs of 2020, unless special attention was paid to the prevention and management of the disease.
The lawamaker added that the bill would establish the much needed legal framework for the prevention, control and management of the continuous spread of the disease, as well as avert early deaths and unnecessary medical expenses by families.
