NGO launches Sickle Cell and First Aid in childhood books

The Ntiamoah Foundation and the Health Education on Wheel of the Police Hospital Annex Dialysis Centre, has launched two health books in Accra.

The books are Sickle Cell Simply Explained, and First Aid In Childhood Illness. It was authored by Dr John Koramoa, a retired Paediatric and Child Health Specialist and General Practitioner in the United Kingdom.

The launch was part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Ntiamoah Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in health and education, and also to mark the 2016 World Sickle Cell Day.

The anniversary was on the theme: “A Decade of Sustainable Humanitarian Services,” mark the 2016 World Sickle Cell Day.

Dr Koramoa said sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disease world-wide and for a person to suffer the disease, he or she has to inherit the faulty gene from each parents.

He said when only one sickle cell gene was inherited by a person with normal haemoglobin, the condition was referred to as the carrier state or the trait and individuals with that would have no medical problems under normal conditions.

“This is how the gene has been able to survive and be passed on from generation to generation and that the trait can thus have serious implications for marriage and childbearing,” he explained.

Dr Koramoa said it is therefore, imperative for people intending to have children to know about it in order to help prevent the sickle cell disease.

The sickle cell and its related conditions book provide information in an easily readable format for everybody to understand.

The First Aid In Childhood Illness book is for every person, especially mothers to know about children’s ailments, and has many topics including fever, infections, which could affect every system in the body; hygiene, food and nutrition in children, and many more.

Mr Robert Kwaku Appiah Asante, the Chairman and Founder of the Ntiamoah Foundation said the body collaborated with the Health Education on Wheels to bring relief to humanity.

He said the Foundation is subsidising 60 per cent of the cost of the books so that the poor and the needy could afford them in order to prevent sickle cell and other diseases in children.

Mr Justice S.A. Brobbey, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court and the former Chief Justice of the Gambia, who chaired the function, urged households to make good use of the books.

He commended Dr Koramoa for giving Ghanaians and the world at large a legacy that would erase the misconception of sickle cell and diseases in early childhood.

He asked students and Ghanaians in general to read the books and share the knowledge that they would acquire from them.

A number of the books were donated to government institutions and schools.