Andreas Kuznik

Ugandans have been advised to go for Sickle cell screening before marriage to avoid the genetic condition of sickle cell. The Researcher attached to Uganda Infectious Disease Institute Andreas Kuznik spoke during the 6th international Symposium sickle cell disease in Africa held at Hotel Africana.

Kuznik says it’s very useful for people to know their status to avoid having children with sickle cell. He says the chances of having a child with sickle cell disease are very high if parents do not go for screening. He noted that children must be diagnosed at the early stage to reduce the deaths of children with sick cells.

According to Kunik there is a high mortality of sickle cell sickness in Uganda both among the adults and the children because screening is so far ongoing in only 14 districts of Uganda out of 112 districts. He says the government should prioritize the buying of more machines for screening sickle cell if the all the districts will be screened for the disease.