Current efforts of Nigerian public hospitals to provide safe blood and CTT fall short of best practice. Provision of apheresis machines, improvement of voluntary non-remunerated donor drive, screening for red cell antigens and antibodies, and availability of iron chelators would significantly improve SCD care in Nigeria.

Context: Premarital screening has been proven to be an effective means of reducing the overall burden of genetic disorders like Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the general population. Aims: To determine the knowledge, attitude and perception of traditional and religious leaders on premarital screening for SCD in Sokoto, NorthWestern , Nigeria. Settings and Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods and Material: Pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire was administered to 375 participants selected through multistage sampling method. Data on the knowledge, attitude and perception of premarital screening for sickle cell disease were obtained. Statistical analysis used: Data were analyzed with SPSS Version 20.0. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age ± SD of the participants was 37.0±11.6 years and the majority of respondents were male 310 (83.1%), married 247 (67.1%) and had tertiary education 179 (50.4%). Good knowledge of SCD was demonstrated by 263 (70.1%) and positive attitude was shown by 259 (69.1%) while positive perception was received from 242 (67.9%). Age, marital and educational status were significantly associated with knowledge of SCD (p< 0.05). Knowledge of the SCD had great influence on the participant's perception for premarital screening in the same way their perception influenced their attitude on premarital screening for SCD (p=0.01). Conclusion: The traditional and religious leaders in Sokoto metropolis showed good knowledge of SCD as well as positive attitude and perception on premarital screening for SCD. We therefore, recommend intensive public awareness programmes and implementation of premarital screening of SCD as well as utilisation of the community leaders as change agents to curb the menace of SCD.

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Background: Priapism is a persistent penile erection that continues for more than four hours beyond sexual stimulation and orgasm or unrelated to sexual stimulation 1 . The objective is to document the pattern and management of priapism in our hospital. Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients managed for Priapism by Urology Unit of our hospital, from January 2009 to December 2015. Results: Thirty patients were managed for managed for priapism within the study period. The mean age at presentation was 23.9 ± 12.2 years with a range of 8-55 years. Fifteen patients (57.7 %) presented beyond 72 hours of the onset of priapism. All the patients had ischaemic priapism. Half of the patients had sickle cell disease, two (7.7 %) had chronic myeloid leukaemia, five (19.2%) used aphrodisiacs and cause was not established in six (23.1%). The most effective forms of treatments were corporal aspiration and glanulocavernosal shunt. Hydroxyurea was used for the patients with leukaemia. Thirteen (50.0%) of the patients were loss to follow-up after their first visits. Three patients (11.5%) developed erectile dysfunction. Conclusion: Sickle cell disease is the commonest cause of ischaemic priapism in our practice. Late presentation is common and is usually associated with the development of erectile dysfunction.

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