By Joy Mbachi
The wife of Anambra Governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo, says genotype and blood group match tests are key to healthy procreation in marriages.
Mrs Soludo stated this during a meeting organised by some women organisations in Akwa, Anambra, on Friday.
The meeting was aimed at sensitising women in the state on the need to have healthy children in marriages.
She described marriages as a solid foundation for procreation where basic ideals need to be entrenched to achieve a healthy society.
Soludu admonished intending couples to pay close attention to genotype match tests before marriages in order to enjoy the union.
She stressed that genotype and blood group tests would create a peaceful home and save the family from avoidable health challenges, especially sickle cell anemia.
“There is need to ‘hammer’ on the merit and demerit of the check as such sensitisation will encourage young people not to neglect the traditional pre-marital genotype test.
“The neglect will bring about emotional and health torments to the affected family, hinders a child’s dreams and future; this pain is avoidable,” she stressed.
Mrs Soludo explained that those who disregard the tests either by ignorance, out of love or emotional phobia, have only created avoidable health risks and an unhealthy social circle.
She disclosed that a whole lot of efforts are being made by the Anambra Government to cut down on the number of children born with sickle cell anaemia and other prenatal sicknesses.
The wife of the governor called on parents, health awareness crusaders, social and religious groups to do more in educating people on the dangers of going into marital relationships without having proper genotype and blood match tests.
She said that though Anambra Government has a comparatively lesser number of children born with sickle cell disease, stronger moves must be made to bring down the number to zero.
Soludo also called for an end to stigma towards sickle cell carriers, and admonished those going into marital unions to always double check, as just one result might not correlate with one’s true health records.