Health advocates have urged young Nigerians to know their genotype and seek proper genetic counselling before having children, as the country continues to face a high burden of sickle cell disease.

The call was made at the second public health awareness workshop organised by NextGENE Advocates in partnership with the Students’ Union Government of the Federal College of Education Technical, Akoka, Lagos.

The campaign focused on helping young people understand how inherited haemoglobin variants can affect their children and why accurate testing matters before pregnancy.

But medical evidence shows that the issue is more complicated than simply avoiding particular genotype combinations.

What the evidence says

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder caused by abnormal haemoglobin. A person develops the disease when they inherit disease-causing haemoglobin variants from both parents.

The World Health Organization says Nigeria has one of the world’s largest sickle-cell burdens. About 25% of adults carry the sickle-cell gene, according to Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Nigeria’s updated national guideline also records significant levels of HbAS, HbAC, HbSC and HbSS among children. It says newborn screening and early intervention can reduce illness and deaths among affected children.

WHO says the disease can cause severe pain, anaemia, infections, stroke and organ damage. It also says most severe cases in Africa occur in children, with many dying before the age of five without adequate care.

The figures cited in the campaign about sickle-cell mortality should therefore be treated carefully. The claim that 150,000 newborn deaths occur annually from sickle cell disease is not supported by the current WHO figures.

Nigeria’s national guideline instead cites an estimate of about 150,000 babies born annually with sickle cell disease, which is very different from 150,000 deaths.

Genotype testing is important, but ‘AA only’ is an oversimplification

Dr Precious Dasaolu, a medical doctor specialising in public health, told participants that intending couples should consider their haemoglobin compatibility alongside other health checks.

“It is important for us to know that an individual with AA genotype is the only saver body to peer up with for reproduction purposes to guarantee for a healthy offspring,” she said.

That statement, however, needs qualification.

Genetic counselling does not mean that every genotype other than AA automatically represents sickle-cell disease. For example, people with sickle-cell trait, such as AS, are generally healthy carriers and do not have sickle-cell disease.

WHO guidance says that when two people with AS genotype have a child, there is a 25% chance in each pregnancy of having a child with sickle-cell disease, a 50% chance of having a carrier child and a 25% chance of having a child without the sickle-cell trait.

Other haemoglobin variants can also combine to produce disease. This means couples should receive professional genetic counselling rather than relying on a blanket rule or advice from unverified testing centres.

Dasaolu also warned against unreliable testing.

“We have seen cases where a child in critical condition that needs blood transfusion is not able to get the blood from either of the parents. This often is traced to either the parents were wrongly diagnosed, perhaps because of faulty equipment or quackery of test conductor, or that the child does not biologically belong to the father.

“This is why we recommend that you do your blood group and genotype test in reputable hospitals and labs. And ensure you do it in three or more different places to ascertain the consistency. This is a very important act to ensure healthy offspring,” she added.

The recommendation to repeat a test several times is not, however, a substitute for proper confirmatory testing and genetic counselling. Nigeria’s national guideline provides for screening, diagnosis, counselling and follow-up as parts of a newborn screening programme.

Campaign says prevention starts with information

NextGENE Advocates founder Bisola Osundairo said the campaign was prompted by what she described as widespread ignorance about genotype and its implications for couples.

Represented at the event by Shakirudeen Bankole, Executive Director of Frontline Advocacy Initiative, Osundairo said Nigeria’s health system faced shortages of medical personnel and infrastructure.

“Nigeria is facing many developmental challenges, with the public healthcare in the front burner. The medical experts are grossly inadequate to attend the large population. Ditto is the health infrastructures. So, the only hope available to the public is publicly available knowledge for prevention. This is why we have taken it upon ourselves to bridge this gap.

“The thing is that the health of each and every individual Nigerians matter. Because it is the smaller unit that makes of the multitude that we call the large population today. So, if everybody is healthy, the population becomes healthy. But if otherwise, then problem comes. And in situations where there is problem, Nigerians are in bad situations because the infrastructures are not there. The experts are not there. This is why everyone must be careful and make inform3d decision especially regarding the health of their partners, which would have bearing on the type of children they make sooner or later,” she explained.

The argument reflects a wider public-health strategy that combines prevention with early diagnosis and treatment.

The Federal Government currently has a national guideline for sickle-cell disease and has been expanding newborn screening and access to treatment.

In June 2026, the Ministry of Health said newborn screening was being implemented in selected facilities in Lagos, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory. It also said it had reviewed national guidelines, expanded training for health workers and established six sickle-cell centres of excellence.

That means public awareness campaigns are taking place alongside government efforts to strengthen diagnosis and treatment rather than replacing them.

Government policy has moved beyond awareness

Nigeria’s approach to sickle-cell disease has also changed from focusing largely on awareness to combining prevention, screening and clinical management.

The Federal Ministry of Health lists a national guideline for the control and management of sickle-cell disease among its public-health policy documents.

The updated guideline states that newborn screening should include testing, confirmation, education, treatment and comprehensive follow-up.

It also says early identification can allow interventions such as infection prevention, genetic counselling, stroke screening and hydroxyurea therapy to begin earlier.

The Federal Government said in June that it was also working to integrate sickle-cell services into primary healthcare and explore affordable screening and subsidised hydroxyurea through health insurance.

The challenge is therefore no longer simply whether Nigerians know their genotype. It is whether people can obtain accurate tests, receive qualified counselling and access affordable care when a child is diagnosed with the disease.

Living with sickle cell

Boluwatife Victor, a person living with sickle-cell disease and an advocate, gave participants a personal account of the condition.

He said living with sickle cell could involve repeated pain and other debilitating complications.

According to him, being alive as a sickle cell survivor is a privilege, as every day spent living is characterised by crises ranging from profuse sweating and breathing difficulties to migraine and severe bone pain.

He recalled losing an undergraduate girlfriend after experiencing a sickle-cell crisis during what he described as an intimate moment.

“It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life,” he said, explaining that after getting together, I suddenly started experiencing profuse sweating and improper breathing. I lost my composure immediately. The lady had to run away,” he narrated.

He also described experiencing prolonged painful erections, known medically as priapism, which can occur as a complication of sickle-cell disease.

“This particular condition is not due to sexual arousal or stimulation. It just occurs. And the erection gets so strong and stays so for days. It is always painful,” he added.

WHO identifies severe pain, anaemia and organ complications among the major consequences of sickle-cell disease.

Students urged to use the information

Adebari Emmanuel, President of the Students’ Union Government at the college, said the partnership formed part of his administration’s health-awareness plans.

“I believe that health is the first human resource. It is only a healthy person that has the capacity to chase his or her dream into fruition. A sick and incapacitated person would only dream but immobile to chase the dreams. This is why we embraced the partnership with NextGENE Advocates to bring the enlightenment campaign to our campus. To help educate our students so they take informed decisions as save themselves and the country from this preventable crisis. And I can assure you that we will definitely take it up from here,” he said.

Dr Christiana Ijeoma Ajaps, Dean of Education at the college, also urged students to rely on medical information rather than traditional explanations for inherited conditions.

She said the campaign was important because young people needed reliable information when making decisions about relationships and reproduction.

“There is a popular adage that ‘love is blind’, but I must tell you this: ‘marriage is an eye-opener.’ Therefore, this advocacy workshop is an important intervention and you students must leverage the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding your partner choices.

“We have passed the era of ignorance. This is the information age. Let’s embrace knowledge and allow it to guide our steps,” she added.

What happens next?

The immediate task is to turn awareness into access.

For young Nigerians, that means obtaining reliable genotype results from qualified laboratories, seeking genetic counselling where necessary and understanding the actual inheritance risks before making reproductive decisions.

For government and health authorities, the bigger test will be whether the expansion of newborn screening, primary healthcare services and treatment can reach more families.

Awareness alone cannot prevent the complications of sickle-cell disease. Nigeria will need accurate testing, early diagnosis, affordable treatment and sustained support for people living with the condition if its high burden is to fall.

….State government says new pharmaceutical and life sciences hub will strengthen medicine supply, while fresh diagnostic investments are planned.

Ondo State plans to establish a pharmaceutical and life sciences hub as part of a wider healthcare reform programme aimed at reducing medicine shortages and improving access to diagnostic services.

The state government says the hub will support local pharmaceutical production, biotechnology research and the distribution of medicines to public and private health facilities.

The Senior Consultant on Pharmaceutical and Medical Investments to the state government, Dr Samuel Adekola, announced the plans during a visit to the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) in Ondo.

Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has approved the proposed hub, according to Adekola.

However, the government has not yet provided details on its location, financing, expected completion date or the companies and institutions that will participate in the project.

Those details will be important in assessing whether the initiative can move beyond policy announcements and address persistent problems with medicine availability and healthcare infrastructure.

Tackling medicine shortages

The government says the proposed hub will help secure Ondo’s medicine supply chain and encourage pharmaceutical manufacturing within the state.

Adekola also said the Ondo State Drugs and Health Commodities Management Agency (OSDHCMA) would evolve into a State Drugs and Health Commodities Distribution Centre.

He said the proposed centre would supply public and private health institutions both within and outside Ondo State.

The government has not stated how much the expansion will cost or whether the distribution centre will operate as a government-funded facility, a commercial entity or through a public-private partnership.

Adekola said the government was preparing operational guidelines for the new system.

He said Health Commissioner Dr Banji Awolowo Ajaka had agreed that stakeholders, including UNIMEDTH, should contribute to the guidelines.

The reform comes against a familiar challenge in Nigeria’s health system: access to medicines can be affected by shortages, procurement problems, distribution gaps and the cost of imported pharmaceutical products.

For patients, the test will be whether the new arrangements make essential medicines more consistently available and affordable.

New diagnostic equipment planned

The state government also says it has approved the procurement of critical diagnostic equipment for healthcare facilities.

Dr Adekola said the equipment would improve the detection of diseases and help doctors make clinical decisions.

But the announcement does not specify the equipment being purchased, the facilities that will receive it, the procurement cost or when the equipment will become operational.

Those details will matter because diagnostic equipment can only improve healthcare when facilities also have trained staff, reliable power, maintenance systems and adequate supplies.

The government’s plans therefore create opportunities for better diagnosis, but also raise questions about procurement, maintenance and accountability.

Hospitals asked to work with drug agency

Dr Samuel Adekola said UNIMEDTH should work closely with OSDHCMA to reduce medicine stockouts and improve transparency in the supply chain.

“For us to eliminate stockouts, prevent circulation of substandard medicines, and maintain a transparent supply chain, UNIMEDTH must be fully aligned with the Agency’s systems and processes,” he said.

UNIMEDTH’s Chief Medical Director, Prof Michael Gbala, welcomed the government’s efforts but highlighted the importance of reliable access to medicines.

He said the hospital needed better drug supplies and stronger medicine management.

Prof Gbala also warned that hospitals should keep stocks of medicines that may be rarely used but become essential during emergencies.

He cited anti-venom as an example.

A patient bitten by a snake, he said, could not afford to wait for a hospital to source the medicine after the emergency had occurred.

His comments underline a key issue for the proposed reforms: medicine security is not only about increasing supply. Hospitals must also know which medicines they need, maintain appropriate stocks and ensure that emergency drugs remain available.

Nutrition to become part of clinical care

The state government is also planning a new nutrition model for hospital patients.

Dr Adekola said the proposed system would treat nutrition as part of clinical treatment rather than as a routine hospital service.

Under the model, meals would be tailored to patients’ medical conditions, metabolic needs and recovery plans.

Related story: Aiyedatiwa Pledges Health Sector Revamp as UNIMED Graduates 771 Students

The government plans to work with the West Africa Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN), while UNIMEDTH is expected to help implement and refine the approach.

The proposal could have implications for patients with conditions that require specialised diets, but the government has not disclosed the expected cost or how it will fund the programme across the state’s hospitals.

Private investment expected

The government also wants UNIMEDTH to identify areas where private investment could support healthcare delivery.

These include diagnostic services, imaging, specialised clinics, digital health systems and biomedical engineering.

Public-private partnerships can bring additional capital and technical expertise into hospitals, but they also require clear rules on pricing, access and accountability.

Without such safeguards, private participation can increase capacity while making some services less affordable for patients.

The government has not yet released the proposed PPP framework or identified the services that will be offered through private operators.

What happens next?

The immediate next steps are the development of operational guidelines, the proposed restructuring of OSDHCMA, procurement of diagnostic equipment and further planning for the pharmaceutical and life sciences hub.

The state will also need to provide details on funding, timelines, procurement processes, private-sector participation and how it will measure the results.

Dr Adekola described the reforms as a new phase for Ondo’s health sector.

For residents, however, the success of the programme will ultimately be measured less by the number of initiatives announced and more by whether patients can find essential medicines, obtain accurate diagnoses and receive effective treatment without facing unnecessary delays or costs.

Nigeria’s healthcare system faces an increasingly uncertain future as thousands of doctors continue to leave the country while hospitals struggle with inadequate infrastructure and workforce shortages, according to medical experts speaking at the 42nd reunion of the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences’ 1984 graduating class.

Delivering the keynote address, Professor Olufemi Adelowo said the country’s health indicators remain among the poorest globally and argued that years of underinvestment and the migration of skilled professionals have weakened the healthcare system.

His warning comes as Nigeria continues to battle one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates while public hospitals face increasing pressure from a growing population.

What evidence supports the concerns?

Professor Adelowo cited figures showing infant mortality at 70 deaths per 1,000 live births, neonatal mortality at 39 per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality at about 1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births. He also said average life expectancy remains between 53 and 56 years.

Many of those figures broadly align with estimates previously published by the World Health Organization and other international health agencies, although mortality statistics can vary depending on the reporting year and methodology.

The professor also pointed to the growing exodus of Nigerian doctors.

According to his presentation, more than 15,700 Nigerian-trained doctors are now practising in the United Kingdom, while thousands more have relocated to the United States and Canada. He cited Federal Ministry of Health estimates that about 16,000 doctors emigrated between 2019 and 2024.

The migration of healthcare workers commonly referred to as the “Japa” phenomenon, has become one of the most significant workforce challenges confronting Nigeria’s health sector.

Why does it matter?

Nigeria’s population is estimated at more than 230 million people, yet the country continues to face shortages of doctors, nurses and specialists.

Professor Adelowo argued that many hospitals lack reliable electricity, water supply, functioning medical equipment and adequate accommodation for resident doctors. He also criticised the management of some hospitals and called for improvements in specialist training and supervision.

He warned that these deficiencies contribute to staff burnout, declining clinical skills in some facilities and poorer patient outcomes.

Technology offers opportunities but is Nigeria ready?

Looking ahead, Professor Adelowo said artificial intelligence is likely to complement rather than replace doctors by improving diagnostic accuracy, interpreting medical images, identifying drug interactions and supporting personalised treatment.

He questioned whether Nigeria’s healthcare system is prepared to adopt such technologies while still struggling with basic infrastructure.

Calls for stronger regulation

Another concern raised during the lecture was the spread of medical misinformation and the sale of counterfeit medicines.

Professor Adelowo called for stricter regulation of fake drugs, stronger enforcement against illegal medical practice and tighter oversight of misleading health advertising.

While counterfeit medicines remain a recognised public health concern in Nigeria, estimates of their prevalence have varied widely over the years. More recent regulatory efforts by agencies such as NAFDAC have sought to reduce their circulation, meaning older estimates should be interpreted cautiously.

Doctors reflect on four decades of service

The reunion also celebrated 42 years since the class graduated from the University of Ilorin.

Programme Coordinator, Dr Festus Oshoba said members of the class had embraced a culture of giving back through philanthropy, mentorship and healthcare interventions.

He said the group had donated specialist ophthalmic equipment to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) through The Tunji Olowolafe Eye Foundation to support the training of eye surgeons.

Dr Oshoba urged younger Nigerians to pursue education, reject shortcuts to success and contribute positively to society.

‘National progress begins with personal responsibility’

Professor Patrick Igbigbi, another member of the graduating class, said Nigeria possesses greater financial resources than some African countries where he has worked, including Uganda and Malawi, but has not translated those resources into better healthcare outcomes.

Rather than placing responsibility solely on government, he argued that corruption and poor accountability exist at multiple levels of society and that meaningful national reform requires personal integrity.

What happens next?

The issues raised at the reunion echo concerns repeatedly expressed by professional medical associations and health policy experts over recent years.

Whether governments can reverse the migration of healthcare workers, modernise public hospitals and improve patient outcomes will depend not only on policy announcements but also on sustained investment, better governance and effective implementation.

For millions of Nigerians who rely on the public health system, those decisions will shape access to quality healthcare for years to come.