This Nigerian girl with SS genotype says she was cured of sickle cell anaemia and her genotype changed to AA. All thanks to her brother.
Taking to Twitter and Instagram, the beautiful girl, Samira Sanusi, thanked her brother, Musty Sanusi, who helped her by donating his bone marrow/stem cells which eventually led cured her of the anaemia about 13 years ago in a post she captioned,
“13 years ago today @mustysanusi gave me his Bone Marrow/Stem Cells which cured me of Sickle Cell Anaemia.”
According to reports, the transplant was done 13 years ago in Vienna, Austria in 2004.
In a bid to confirm the certainty of her new genotype status, Samira has had to take genotype test on 3 different occasions just to confirm that her SS genotype has indeed been transformed to AA. She revealed this in a Twitter post.
“Born with Sickle Cell, got cured in 2004 through Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplant, checked my Genotype today for the 3rd time, I’m still AA.”
Samira has since started a sickle cell anaemia awareness foundation to support other sickle cell patients emotionally and financially.
Bone marrow transplant (BMT) for sickle cell involves transplanting the bone marrow from a donor (a person with Haemoglobin AA or AS) to a person with haemoglobin SS.
ALSO READ: Nigerian Girl Regrets Her AA Genotype, Begs God for Another
Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. The bone marrow produces blood cells. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your different blood cells.
The bone marrow is usually collected from the hip bone and is best donated by the patients’ brother or sister.
What stem cell or bone marrow transplant does is to change the genotype from SS to AA and so the patient no longer experience crisis and the cells are no longer giving problems.
So, with bone marrow transplant, it’s actually possible to cure a sickle cell anaemia patient and help change their genotype from SS to AA.
