Marriage is a life time institution where applicants should be careful in the type of choice he or she make. The type of choice made can either lead to happiness or sadness for both parties involved and even their children.
In this article, I am going to center my discussion on non-compatibility genotype, this does not mean that we don't have other factors that can affect marriages. It is very important for any parties to check their genotype before embarking on any relationship.
We have different type of patterns in genotype where if the parties involved married can lead to happiness or disaster for both couples and their unborn children. It is said that AA and AA are compatible, while AS and AS are not compatible because they are likely to give birth to a sickle cell patient, Another dangerous combination is AS and SS. Research has shown that we have another deadly genotype compare to SS which is AC.
It is so unfortunate that, the offspring of this Union have been at the receiving end of the mistake of their parents through their non challant attitude to the fact that they are not compatible or maybe ignorance on their side. In recent times, research has shown that over 10000 children died of sickle cell every year and this is in no way good for the country recording a high mortality rate.
It was also discovered that over 150000 children are born with sickle cell disease (SCD) yearly in the country and this represent the highest number of persons born with it across the globe. This development has been augmented due to ignorance of the parents, illiteracy, love in its blindness nature, frustration of not getting a partner on time etc. In a nutshell, children have always been at the receiving end of the mistakes of their parents which lead to health instability and eventually dead.
The government and other agencies concern should create awareness to people encouraging them to check their genotype before going into marriage. In addition government can come up with newborn screening policy where sickle cell disease can be detected early in children. Thus is done in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and it has greatly helped in reducing the nemesis done by this disease.
In conclusion, to reduce the disease to its barest minimum, the government as well as the citizens has a role to play. Couple should endeavour to check their genotype before going into any marriage ceremony and the government on the other hand should create awareness to the citizens so as to educate them properly.

This is the handwriting of Shola Akinpelumi pka DUPRE.