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Health News Friday, May 3, 2019
Source: 3news.com
2019-05-03
Some sickle cell can live well beyond the life expectancy of Ghanaians, who is 63 years old.
Contrary to popular belief that people with sickle cell disease are prone to premature death, Dr. Charles Antwi Boasiako, Department Head and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ghana, described such myths.
According to the doctor, some patients with sickle cell disease can live well beyond the life expectancy of Ghanaians, which according to the World Bank would be about 63 years old. He said that some can even live up to 90 years old.
He was speaking in an interview with Onua 95.1FM ON on Thursday, May 2nd.
Dr. Antwi Boasiako explained that sickle cell disease is not contagious, but a blood-borne disease transmitted at birth – it is inherited.
He added that sickle cell disease means that the amount of hemoglobin needed to transport oxygen from the lungs to other body tissues is inadequate.
"Affected people have low hemoglobin, which is why we talk about sickle cell disease," he said in a statement.
He noted that the observation about patients with sickle cell disease is that they are very bright people, what he said, many people ignore him.
The doctor advised patients to go to the hospital frequently and take the medications prescribed by their doctors, warning that the disease could affect all organs of the body, including the kidneys and liver.
He also warned patients about the type of activities they involve themselves because they can have devastating effects.
Dr. Boasiako has encouraged rehydration and good nutrition in patients to help prevent blood thickening.
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