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{
"id": 907181,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/907181/?format=api",
"text_counter": 719,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 124,
"legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
"slug": "samson-ongeri"
},
"content": "age of life. This is simple medication that can be given at the hospital, health centre and dispensary. Many of these children die unnoticed. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Mover is trying to seek that we now provide centres, particularly when we look at the prevalence rates of this disease. It is prevalent in Western Kenya and the Coastal Region. If you were in the United States of America (USA), it is present in the African Americans. If you are in South America, it is in the Hispanics; in Europe, it is Southern of Europe and in India, it is in some parts of India. Therefore, at that early age when people find it difficult to diagnose, a young child can easily die because of lack of knowledge and expertise on what to do when you are confronted with this kind of disease. The burden being placed on these centres is early screening and detecting that you have abnormal hemoglobin in the body which cannot competently carry oxygen to all tissues and parts of the body. The method which is used is simple. You just take blood and run it through an electrophoresis strip which gives you bands showing whether the hemoglobin is normal or abnormal. In fact, when you look in the microscope, you will detect the red blood cell which is oval. If you see many crescents, that is enough for you to make a diagnosis of Sickle Cell Disease. This screening is important. Once you have done early screening and detected it, you can save the life of that child who will then live a normal life for as long as they attend those clinics for life. That is the essence of this Motion; that we can save lives. Therefore, the infant mortality that we are talking about and is attributed to Sickle Cell Disease as a result of sickle cell crisis, can be minimized to the lowest level possible and they can live normal lives. Madam Temporary Speaker, second is to make the parents aware that even simple hydration when a child has fever or something else can prevent a crisis from occurring. This is because when a crisis occurs, you get all these little awkward haemoglobin which is sickle shaped going round the circulation, getting deposited and causing occlusion or preventing blood from flowing gently and nicely though the arteries and veins. It then causes microthrombi which is small thromboses which are being circulated and thrown out either to the brain, lungs, heart, spleen or any organ, including the kidney. Therefore, it is important that in order to preserve these organs, they do not become victims of these microthrombi or small chips of those abnormal cells being in circulation causing problems for them. Simple hydrating is very important to prevent those deposits causing these crises. Any infection must first of all be determined. Needless to say, if I was teaching medical students, I would say there are five types of these haemoglobin difficulties. There is the haemoglobin SS, SE, D, SB Thalassemia and SD Thalassemia. Those are technical terms I need not bother you with those terminologies. Suffice to say, the most common one is the SS. That is the one that we are concerned with and which is prevalent in Kenya in Kisumu, South Nyanza, Kakamega and those areas. Parents used to bring me children from these areas. It is important that when such a situation occurs and you are able to know the genetic make-up of a parent, you can actually give counseling before they marry. That way, you will not get an SS marrying another SS because you are technically saying that the outcome of it would be a recessive type. In other words, they die faster than the"
}