Are you married? About to get married? Or know someone who is about to get married? Then this article is just for you.
Before marriage, all sort of preparations kick in, we prepare spiritually, financially, traditionally to mention but a few. But often times people neglect to take into consideration a vital preparatory phase which is medical checkup; your blood group, genotype, HIV status, Hepatitis, presence of any hereditary disorders etc.The phenomenon of true love, finding the missing rib, Mr. and Mrs. Right is ineffective and short lived if at the end of the day one baby after another is buried because of the neglect of one or both parents to carry out a genotype test amongst other necessary checkup, to prevent the occurrence of sickle cell disease.WHAT IS GENOTYPE?
Simply put genotype is the genetic constitution of a person. According to gregor medel,he stated that separate genes for separate traits are passed independently from parents to offspring, in lay terms a persons genetic ,make up is as a result of that which is inherited from his/her parents.
WHAT DETERMINES YOUR GENOTYPE? Haemoglobin is the iron carrying content in red blood cells. It has an iron and a globin content, the globin molecule has alpha, beta or gamma chains. A person with two alpha and two beta is said to have haemoglobin A, while a person with an abnormal haemoglobin S, is said to have sickle cell gene which occurs when an amino acid valine is subsituted for glutamic acid in the Beta chain of the haemoglobin molecule, hence resulting in sickle cell anaemia.Sickle cell anemia is the most common disease caused by abnormal haemoglobin. It cuts across all races and tribes,it is estimated that 100,000 infants die from sickle cell disease every year in Nigeria.This disease occurs in two forms1. Sickle cell trait; In this form,a person inherits only one sickle cell gene from one parent and is said to be a sickle cell carrier(AS)2. Sickle cell disease; In this case,a person inherits both sickle cell genes from both parents,and is usually referred to as a sickler (SS);while someone that has no sickle cell gene is normal (AA).
Both Sicklers and their handlers (parents or guardians) go through a lot of pains, especially when the sicklers go through their 'crisis'.
WHAT MUST BE DONE?
According to mendel, if a person with genotype AA marries another person with genotype AA, they give birth to healthy AA children. If a person with AA genotype ,marries someone with AS genotype,there is a probability of having halfof the offsprings healthy (AA) and the other half as sickle cell carriers (AS).But if a sickler cell carrier (AS) marries another sickle cell carrier (AS),there is the probability that one of four of their children will be a sickler (AA),but sometimes it is possible that all of the offsprings are sicklers. (At this time,love no go dey again o).So now you know,it is therefore important that before one consents into or to a marriage, one must undertake a genotype test amongst other tests to prepare against unwanted circumstances To be fore warned is to be forearmed
By: SCI.UKATU SUZZETTE
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