Reps declare commitment to end yearly death of innocent children from Sickle cell

By Tom Okpe

The House of Representatives has declared its commitment to end yearly death of 100,000 innocent children from sickle cell anemia, making the country number one sickle cell endemic country in Africa.

Available statistics refers Nigeria to have the highest burden of sickle cell disorder in the world as over 40 million Nigerians are carriers of the disease gene, and over 150,000 babies are born with it every year.

However, there is no single legal framework in Nigeria for the prevention, control and treatment of the disease and to address this, the House of Representatives is working on a Bill for an Act to Establish the National Agency For Sickle Cell Disease and other Heritage Blood Disaster for the Treatment, Prevention Control and Management of the Disease in Nigeria.

The Bill which has passed through first and second readings on the floor of the House was Wednesday, subjected to Public Hearing along with the Bill for an Act to establish Federal Medical Centre Hong, Adamawa State.

Sponsored by Bamidele Salam (PDP Osun), the Bill seek to improve lives of people, suffering from Sickle cell disease, recognize the disease as a serious and debilitating illness and allocate new resources to monitoring, research and treating it.

The Bill particularly, seek to: “formulate and implement policies, guidelines and strategies on sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders; facilitate engagement of all tiers of government and sectors on issues of sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorder prevention, care and support.

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“Also, advocate for the mainstreaming of sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders interventions into all sectors of the country; promote, improve and support research and learning in sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders.”

While declaring the public hearing on the Bill and the Act to Establish the Federal Medical Centre Hong in Adamawa State, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila said both proposed legislations are in line with the 9th House legislative agenda to make interventions in the health sector.

“We set out a Legislative Agenda that outlined the scope of our governing ambitions and made commitments to improve access to healthcare services for all our nationàls, increase funding for healthcare research, improve mechanisms for training and providing for our healthcare professionals amongst others,” Gbajabiamila said.

In his presentation, Minister of Health,  Osagie Ehanire said the Department of Public Health within the Federal Ministry of Health which currently deals with non-communicable diseases be strengthened to continue with the work which falls within its mandate.

The Minister, represented by Director, Hospital Services in the Ministry, Adedimpe Adebiyi said

the need to improve access to quality healthcare services can not be overemphasised, commending the efforts of lawmakers towards realisation of its goal.

On the Federal Medical Centre Hong, the Minister said: “Policy for establishing Federal Medical Centre, it’s established in States where there are no Federal Teaching Hospitals. 

“Currently, the above policy is accomplished and it is inadvisable for the Federal Government to engage in proliferation of tertiary health institutions.”

Sponsor of the Bill, Yusuf Yakub (APC, Adamawa), said indigenes of the area had in 2019 mobilised health-care infrastructure and equipment from government and the private sector to upgrade an existing health facility which can accommodate the proposed Federal Medical Centre.

“I urge this Honourable Committee to recommend that this Multi-Million Naira health facility be named a Federal Medical Centre.

“This is to reflect its new status in order to meet the healthcare needs of an immediate population of 226,100 people, covering 87.38KM and other surrounding Local Government Areas outside Adamawa State with a population of over 2 million,” he emphasized.