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During the COVID-19 lockdown that lasted for over five months in Nigeria, a lot of Nigerians particularly the vulnerable were unable to access health centres. The ICIR’s NIYI OYEDEJI reports on how people living with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) battled for survival during the lockdown.
ON April 16, 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria, pregnant Hauwah Abdulkareem, 34, a resident of Ilorin, who lives with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) approached the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) while she was suffering from the vaso-occlusive crisis.
The mother of two said she was astonished when she got to the UITH and was told to go back home, although she held a referral form from a professional hematologist, she was told that her condition was not an emergency case