By Haruna Gimba
A Non-Governmental Organisation, the Sickle Cell Community, has called on the Kano State House of Assembly to allocate five per cent of proceeds to be realised from the proposed Kano State Health Trust Fund to people living with Sickle Cell Anaemia.
The President of the community in the state, Asma’u Ahmad Rufa’i, made the call on Thursday during a public hearing organised by the assembly on the proposed establishment of the fund.
Asma’u Ahmad
According to her, persons with sickle cell in the state need more government intervention on their health issues looking at the economic hardship in the country.
“There are many patients with such disease but do not have the means to take care of their condition daily, therefore wealthy individuals should also invest their wealth in that area.
“But I believe if five per cent of the fund is allocated to the people with such challenges, it will assist in reducing high rate of deaths cause by the disease,” she said.
Asmau Ahmad added that Kano and Lagos states have the highest population of people with sickle cells.
She said there are also high number of marriage between the carriers of the gene S , which she said contributed so much to the increase of having children with such health challenges.
Declaring the forum earlier, the Speaker, Alhaji Kabiru Rurum, said the proposed bill has scaled first reading, explaining that the fund to be generated will be used to provide basic health facilities across the state’s own hospitals.
According to him, the establishment of the law will also provide more access to affordable and accessible healthcare facilities in all government hospitals.
