Foundation tackles Otoikhian, says there’s hope for sickle cell patients
SESAN
21 JUN 2018
Dayo Ojerinde

The President, Sickle Cell Aid Foundation of Nigeria, Dr. Bukola Bolarinwa, has said it is wrong for anyone to say there is no hope for sickle cell patients.

A professor of Genetics, Cyril Otoikhian, while answering questions on Wednesday morning during a programme, Your Views, on TV Continental, a Lagos-based TV station, berated parents spending on their sickle cell children, stating that there was no point spending on them.

‘’Investing in a sickle cell child is like loading your money into a sachet and you are in a moving car, you throw the money away. Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder. I am a professor of genetics and we know right from time even till tomorrow that genetic disorder is not reversible’’ he said.

Responding to Otoikhian, Bolarinwa, who spoke with our correspondent in a telephone interview, expressed her disappointment at TVC for giving him (Otoikhian) the platform to air such a view on a day that was set aside for the celebration of sickle cell patients all over the world.

don’t think he said anything reasonable on that show, to be honest, there was nothing that he said that was actually factual. I don’t know where he got his degree from,” Bolarinwa said.

“For now, sickle cell cannot be reversed, but there is a cure through stem cell transplant. After the procedure, the person no longer produces sickle cell genotype, the person will start producing the genotype of the donor,” she said.

She said it was wrong for the professor to say there was no hope for sickle cell patients.

“People with sickle cell are living long into their 80s, a woman that lives longest with sickle cell is in Lagos, she is 92 today (Wednesday) and she is doing well. There are many people without sickle cell that have died before her,” she stated.

Copyright PUNCH.

Where did he get his degrees? Surely he didn't acquire wisdom with them... Provided those degrees are genuine.

Be careful the kind of university you send your wards to... investigate the teachers very well.... This man is definitely more like a fraud in the academia. I am definitely interested in getting to the root of his degrees