The Secretary, Kano Sickle Cell Club, Mr. Abdulkadir Muhammad, on Wednesday disclosed that the club lost no fewer than 80 of their members in 2019 as a result of shortage of blood.
He attributed the shortage of blood to economic hardship.
Muhammad who addressed journalists in Kano, said the deceased members could not afford their prescribed drugs as a result of lack of funds.
He lamented the economic challenges which made it difficult for most of the sickle cell patients to afford the needed constant medical attention.
According to him, many of their members depended on the club for financial assistance to meet their medical bills adding that because the club lacked sponsors, it couldn’t always meet their needs.
The club’s scribe pointed out that shortage of blood was the greatest problem to sickle cell patients often times resulting to death and other complications.
“Most of our members have to borrow money for transportation to the hospital, thereby relying on the executive members to give them transport money back to their destinations.
“And we have no enough resources to cater for them, therefore we always find ourselves in one difficulty or the other.
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“Due to shortage of blood, we have lost about 80 of our members. Most of them died because they cannot afford to take care of their hospital bills.
“Their parents had no money to take them to hospital which made their body condition deteriorate rapidly.
“By the time the parents managed to bring them to hospital the condition has already worsened and before you know it, they lost their lives.
“Blood shortage is our serious challenge, occasioned by lack of money.
“We therefore call on the government to support us. Not only government, we also call on the general public to assist us, especially with blood and other drugs,” he stated.
Muhammad also decried the challenges members face in buying prescribed drugs, as most of their drugs were used by drug addicts, making it difficult for pharmacies to accept to sell it to them.
Reacting to the development, the Director Medical Services, Kano State Ministry of Health, Dr. Shehu Abdullahi, said the state government had designated clinics for sickle cell patients.
According to him, the state government also sponsor the training of specialised consultants on sickle cell disease in a bid to provide medical care for sickle cell patients.
Furthermore, he said that the consultants had already been posted to various hospitals across the state to take care of the patients.
“The state government, through the Ministry of Health, has also dedicated budget to procure medicines, consumables and finance the activities of the sickle cell patients.
“Also, N50 million has been budgeted for blood transfusion services for the sickle cell patients and even people suffering from other ailments.
“This is in addition to resuscitation of blood banks in our hospitals.
“Government is doing a lot on sickle cell disease because we know it is a financial, emotional and moral burden on the patients and their parents,” the director said.
Additional reports from NAN
