One of the diseases that the NIPT screens for is the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).
What is Sickle Cell Disease?
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) also known as Sickle Cell Anemia is a common genetic disease.
In Nigeria Sickle Cell Anemia affects roughly 25% of the adult population.
When a newborn receives a sickle cell gene (S) from both parents, it’s born with the complete genotype (SS).
Sickle cell affects millions of people in Nigeria and is an incurable health condition.
Over time, treatments have been created that can relieve pain and help prevent complications associated with the disease.
Within the first few weeks of birth, newborns with Sickle Cell are more susceptible to severe infections.
In SCD patients the red blood cells die early, leaving few cells to carry oxygen throughout the body, causing anemia.
Infection or enlargement of the spleen (which stores red blood cells) may make the anemia worse, requiring blood transfusions.
A newborn may also receive just one sickle cell gene from either parent, and be born with the carrier genotype (AS).
An infant with just one sickle cell gene has what is known as the sickle cell trait (SCT).
If both parents have either Sickle Cell Anemia or Sickle Cell Trait, it is important that they discuss this information with each other and their doctor when making family planning decisions.
If you are pregnant, your child could have a high sickle cell disease inheritance risk and you may not know.
It is essential to be tested while pregnant regardless of if you’ve been screened for Sickle Cell before.
If you have never been screened or never experienced any symptoms related to Sickle Cell Disease, you might have inherited the sickle cell gene and be unware that you are a carrier.
How do I know if my baby has Sickle Cell Disease?
Newborn babies are normally tested for sickle cell disease and anaemia inheritance shortly after birth.
However, even while pregnant, you can procure a SCD screen test known as the NIPT.
NIPT is a prenatal test for your unborn baby as early as the 10th week of gestation.
Early testing helps to assess the risk level of your unborn baby, so that you can make an informed decision.
The NIPT also helps to assess the level of the risk of transmission of the disease even before birth.
The NIPT is highly accurate and non-invasive, and screens for SCD from the 10th week of pregnancy.
The only requirement of the NIPT is the blood of the pregnant woman, to enable detection of the disease.
Where can I do the NIPT test?
This test is carried out in Lagos, Nigeria by Teocare Genomics Nigeria Ltd.
Teocare provides an opportunity to assess the risk of babies before their birth, and enables their parents make informed decisions.
As mentioned earlier, the NIPT tests cell-free fetal DNA present in the pregnant mother’s blood.
Sickle Cell Anemia can be detected by the NIPT without using paternal DNA.
The NIPT is a solid alternative to existing invasive methods.
It utilizes cell-free fetal DNA from the pregnant mother’s peripheral blood because fetal DNA is present in maternal blood and can comprise up to 10 percent by the 10th week of gestation.
By analyzing cell-free DNA in the pregnant mother’s blood, the fetal Sickle Cell Disease status can be determined.
At Teocare Nigeria Ltd., the Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) offered is one of the safest and most affordable alternatives to traditional methods such as chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis and can be performed earlier in pregnancy.
If you have any inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us at Teocare Genomics using the form below and we’ll be more than willing to respond to you.
