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UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE (CHANCELLOR LORD SALISBURY) HONOURS PROFESSOR FELIX KONOTEY-AHULU

September 5th 2018 at St Albans Cathedral

Prof. Felix Konotey‐Ahulu, Lord Salisbury
Prof. Felix Konotey‐Ahulu
Award Scroll


https://youtu.be/41a1FZSpHd4

CITATION HONORARY DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF SCIENCE (DSc)

Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to read the citation for the presentation of the honorary award of Doctor of Science on Professor Felix Konotey-Ahulu.

Science is, in essence, a search for the truth. It is this search for truth that has driven Felix to make very significant discoveries in the area of sickle cell disease. As a scientist, he is not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom if it conflicts with his own discoveries. But this has landed him in hot water at times, not least when he was assigned no fewer than four bodyguards when he was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr Foundation’s award banquet in Philadelphia 1972!* His pointing out the vital distinction between sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease was going to have huge implications for insurance companies, and the organisers were more than a little concerned for his safety.

Felix’s research in the area of sickle cell disease has been groundbreaking. He is the only known scientist to have traced hereditary disease in his own family all the way back to 1670 AD. Having grown up in a family where sickle cell disease was present, his knowledge of the disease even before he went to medical school in the UK was significant. His parents had sickle cell trait, which resulted in his siblings having the disease, although he himself has neither.
Felix’s personal experience and observations therefore qualified him well to question conventional thinking about the causes of sickle cell trait, and seeing the pain and struggles of his siblings has greatly informed the way he views people with the condition. The sickle cell clinic in Ghana of which he was the
Director, at the Korle Bu Hospital, was the largest in the world. In addition, he established the Konotey-Ahulu Genetic Epidemiology Sickle Cell Foundation in 2011 to provide counselling for sufferers, as well as education and research.
The importance of asking questions is something Felix has always been very keen to pass on to his own students – encouraging them to learn ‘how to think’ rather than simply learning ‘what to think’ in order to pass exams. This ties in with his passion for medical ethics, particularly in the area of genetics. Indeed, one of his caveats is, ‘Medicine without ethics is dangerous!’

Although this honorary doctorate is being awarded for Felix’s involvement in the area of sickle cell disease, he has contributed significantly to other areas of work, including AIDS research, medical ethics and tonal linguistics. He has been very widely published, and a number of his articles have become the definitive studies in their field.

Felix has also authored two books. Of the first, What is AIDS?, Professor Maya Angelou said that it is ‘Compulsive reading. I could not put it down.’ His second, The Sickle Cell Disease Patient, has been described as ‘a commendable addition to the medical literature’.

The contribution of Felix has been publicly acknowledged many times, among which was inclusion in a list of ‘The 100 Greatest Africans of All Time’. In this list he keeps esteemed company, with names such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Kofi Annan. Among many other distinguished awards, he has received the Dr Martin Luther King Junior Foundation Award for outstanding research in sickle cell anaemia, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia Humanitarian Award in 2007, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the people of Africa and to the world.

Felix says that he has a soft spot for St Albans, as his second job after qualifying as a doctor at London University’s Westminster Hospital School of Medicine was as house surgeon in 1960 to three eminent surgeons at St Albans City Hospital. He remembers this fondly as a most memorable period in his career. Twenty years later, the hospital was privileged to count Felix as a locum physician in medicine for the elderly in the 1980s. He is now resident in Hertfordshire.

And Felix has a very diverse range of other talents too. If you have a moment, do search the internet for the millennium hymn he wrote – it’s called ‘Time was Created’ and available on YouTube, and is well worth a listen!
Chancellor, in recognition of outstanding achievement I ask that you confer the honorary award of Doctor of Science upon Professor Felix Konotey-Ahulu.

*See British Medical Journal 2007, July 28 Volume 335, page 210
“Four bodyguards and the perils of unmasking scientific truths” by F I D Konotey-Ahulu http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7612/210

UH Hon. DSc Acceptance Speech Sept. 5 @ St Albans Cathedral

Lord Salisbury, Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, Lord Ribeiro of Achimota and Ovington and Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Graduates, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen! Hearty Congratulations to those who studied Allied Health Professions including Midwifery and have emerged so successful. Very Well Done! I sincerely wish you well for your future endeavours.

Regarding myself, ever since I got the letter of the Vice-Chancellor inviting me to receive an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree one word has been uppermost in my head – and that word is GRATITUDE. Allow me explain: Exactly one week after leaving Achimota School on completing my Cambridge School Certificate Exams in the Gold Coast (Ghana) my brother Jerry and I were struck by lightning on the football field. He was killed instantly. I was spared, with just a facial burn. Jerry was 17 years of age, I was 19. Why Jerry? And not me? I will never know the answer to that question, but one thing I do know, GOD Almighty has His hand on me. And my gratitude to HIM knows no bounds.

Three and half years after the lightning bolt I did the 12 days’ voyage by Boat (Elder Dempster Lines) to England to study Medicine. Can you believe that I was taught by the best of the best? At London University’s Westminster Hospital School of Medicine Clinicians of Royalty were my teachers notably Sir Richard Bayliss who became Physician of Her Majesty the Queen. Any bedside manners I possess I was taught by Sir Richard. You had better have bedside manners with the Head of the Commonwealth. My first job as a doctor was in London at Bethnal Green Hospital. Walking into Ward B3South I introduced myself to the nurse. “Hello, I am the new doctor, Felix”. Quick came the response “Hello. I am Sister Moss”. “So, what can I call you?” I asked hopefully. “You can call me Sister Moss” she replied. Actually, her name was Rosemary. I remember that Monday morning June 15 1959 as if it was yesterday because on Easter Monday 23rd April 1962 Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones married Felix and Rosemary Moss at Westminster Chapel. She is a staunch believer in The Lord Jesus Christ. We have 3 children, 11 grandchildren, and 2 great grand-children. Just Google “Felix and Rosemary” and you’ll see our 50th Wedding Anniversary 2012 clip. Darling I thank GOD for you! You are just as beautiful today as when I cast eyes on you 59 years 3 months ago. I don’t know how I could have achieved what I have done without you.

GRATITUDE: I stress this again as I end. I owe so much to more people than I have time to mention; people who made sacrifices for me like Professor Hermann Lehmann (Cambridge University), Professor Bela Ringelhann the Hungarian, Dr Kobla Gbedemah (Ghanaian Laboratory Expert) – men who have been long dead but whom I shall never forget. Also, Institutions that put their weight behind me like Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board, Ghana’s Managing Trustees of The VALCO Fund, and University of Cape Coast in Ghana.

Dear Graduates, when you see someone struggling in life and you reach down and lift them up, and you tell them “I will help carry your load”, you have an impact beyond anything you can imagine. One big thing I learnt coming to England in the early 1950s was that every privilege carried a responsibility. Never forget, Ladies and Gentlemen, that you have had privileges in life. Please, please, learn to help those less privileged than you. If I have achieved anything it is because I have been enabled by others to stand on the shoulders of giants. It has been a privilege to share this occasion with you. Lord Salisbury, I thank University of Hertfordshire for this honour done me. And I thank GOD Almighty in whose hands my very breath is for longevity.

Lord Salisbury, Prof. Felix Konotey‐Ahulu, Lord Ribeiro
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Who will tell pre-teenagers that, Tafracher, Abnormal Sex is highly dangerous?

A Ghanaian African worth his salt cannot adequately communicate the message below without employing the aid of “Tafracher”, that invaluable tribal word I first introduced to medical parlance in the British Medical Journal some 43 years six months ago [1]. Please start by reading that BMJ page here https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5953/329 before proceeding to what I have to say about vaccinating 12 to 13-year old boys in order (experts say), to prevent them getting cancers of both ends of their ALIMENTARY CANAL, throat and anus. Please, I beg you, do NOT proceed to read what I have written below until you have read this article https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5953/329 possibly twice over. I’ve warned you!

BREAKING NEWS

UK Government’s announcement: “Boys in England to get HPV vaccine from next year” [2 3] was so startling that it was “BREAKING NEWS” world-wide [ 4 – 11]. Some items contained the information that the HPV vaccine “can guard against oral, throat, and anal cancers”. Not a word about what constitutes “Abnormal” Sexual Practice.

DEFINITION OF “ABNORMAL SEX”

I turn to those I consider to be the world authorities on abnormal sexual practice for clear definitions of “normal sex” and “abnormal sex”. I do not know how many other physicians besides me have interviewed more than 120 international prostitutes (alias sex workers) on duty or in their homes in Africa when, with a chaperon, I examined some of them very carefully for extraordinary pathological features, and published findings in at least six British medical and scientific journals [12-24] and elsewhere [25-29]. The cardinal thing that these ladies taught me far beyond what experts like Professor Michael Adler [30] and Dr W F Owen of San Francisco [31] revealed in their publications was that only peno-vaginal sexual intercourse constituted “normal sex”, and anything other than that like (Tafracher) anal sex and variations there-from or (Tafracher) oral sex i.e. fellatio and variations there-from constituted “abnormal sex,” and the girls demanded double or triple what they charged for normal sex.

WHY DO AFRICAN PROSTITUTES CHARGE MORE FOR ABNORMAL SEX?

So why did African sex workers charge double or triple when clients demanded what the girls considered abnormal sex? Quick came the answer from the most articulate of the women I invited to lunch with me in a Mombasa hotel in Kenya: “But you are a Dorkita and you do not know? Very dangerous, I tell you, Dorkita!” [14 20 24 25 29]. Abnormal sex is harmful – the very word used on the front page of Monday’s UK Daily Telegraph July 30 2018: “Growing number of primary school children are exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour as a result of the internet” [32]. One Burundi prostitute told me she knew abnormal sex was very dangerous “Mais je leur demande une grande somme d’argent” (But I demand from them a huge sum of money) [25 page 36]. Abnorma;l sex, the girls told me can be both quantitative (Tafracher, over 20 coital acts in one day in their trade) and qualitative as when clients demand abnormal sex as well. Together, these quantitative and qualitative acts produced what I described as “perineal devastation and disintegration” [14 25 29] enabling invasion of microbes.

TAFRACHER GONORHOEA OF THE THROAT!

I once described palatal echymosis from fellatio in a housewife who admitted on my questioning that (and I quote) “my husband was rather rough last night”, but the sore throat that she presented with in one London hospital turned out to be “Gonorrhoea of the throat!” [15]. The question I have for the UK Government lining up 12 to 13-year old boys for HPV vaccination to prevent oral cancer is this: “Will the vaccine protect them against gonorrhoea of the throat?”

The experienced Dr Joginder Anand (previously of UK Public Health) once asked “Public Health England whether the doctors who are remunerated for this vaccination could be required to spell out to the children being vaccinated the precise mechanical route of transmission of the virus” [33] Who, pray, will teach these children the relative health hazards of the different sexual practices, as the African prostitutes rehearsed to me? What if some of these pre-teenagers decide: “Right, marvellous, I can be as promiscuous as I like. I am protected.”? How does one teach our children and grand-children, and great-grand-children sexual discipline? Aren’t we heaping problem after problem on our young people and the health services?

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LEARNING FROM DEVELOPED UK AND USA?

One doctor from Mauritius [34] reacting positively to the BMJ news “Boys in England to get HPV vaccine from next year” [2] says that because his country’s Minister of Health and Quality of Life had in 2016 “announced a new vaccination program for females who are aged between nine and thirteen” due to “150 new cases of cervical
cancer reported annually and about 50 deaths also” [35] he sincerely hoped “that the same system of vaccination follows for the boys in the country” [34]. And this despite the fact (he says) that “Parents in Mauritius are very hesitant to allow their children to be vaccinated as they believe that they are not sexually active at such a young age and it is an unnecessary vaccine” [34]. It appears parents’ wishes in Mauritius were subordinated to practices from developed country Britain because “While we gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968, we still value the examples set by the country in terms of prevention, law and order, and medical care” [34]. There you have it: Great Britain does it, so ex-Colonies must follow suit! The USA is not different: “The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommendation issued in 2009 was permissive, meaning providers could give the vaccine to boys … (and) The three-vaccination series can start as early as age 9 years” [36]. Will HPV vaccine protect the children against rectal syphilis? Are parents told answer to that question?

OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT OF ABNORMAL SEX FOR CHILDREN?

The British Medical Journal Editorial of Professor Margaret Stanley and colleagues (August 2 2014, p 6) [37] gives little convincing reason why “all 12 to13 year old boys” should also be vaccinated against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, which results “in an estimated 90% of cases of anal cancer in the UK” [37], and which also causes “oro-pharyngeal cancers” [37]. A UK Government initiative headlined “Oral sex lessons to cut teenage pregnancy” [38] elaborated thus: “Encouraging school children to experiment with oral sex could prove the most effective way of curbing teenage pregnancy rates, a government study has found” [38]. Then this headline in UK’s Daily Telegraph “Children aged 5 get sex education” [39] also has an article stating plans “to cut teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases” with not a single caveat that (Tafracher) Oral Sex has been found to produce HIV-AIDS [40 41 42]. Indeed, I once asked in the BMJ “Would the sex education material include information on gonorrhoea of the throat? Would the children be told of the risks to which phallic bruising of the palate exposes them with oral sex?” [43] Please read again my BMJ concerns where I reiterated the fact that “people who do different things with their mouth can pass on Chlamydia through a harmless pastime like French kissing” [43]. Why must we keep such information from teenagers? I myself saw Kaposi Sarcoma
in the mouth of a Burundi prostitute. Do Clinicians in Developed Countries take an oral sex history when they observe a sarcoma of the neck?

HEALTH ADVISORS MUST DECLARE COMPETING INTERESTS

I strongly suggest that those sitting on Committees of NICE, NHS Licensing, etc advising the UK Government and United States Government about mass vaccinations and drugs must, like the rest of us do when we air opinions on health matters, declare what financial and other interests they may have, for example like links with Big Pharma. Don’t we also have to know what those we vote for in General Elections think about asking children to experiment with Abnormal Sex? And we must never forget the astonishment of the tribal chief I described in Ghana who, acutely aware of the main cause of AIDS among his subjects, was told that The Europeans and Americans were developing a vaccine for AIDS. “What?”, he screamed “You mean they are going to prick us with needles so we can do what we like?” [25, page 146].

Competing Interest: My book “WHAT IS AIDS?” [25] is on sale with detailed accounts of what the African international Sex Workers revealed to me regarding Abnormal Sex.

Email : felix@konotey-ahulu.com
Twitter : @profkonoteyahul

Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu FGA MB BS MD(Lond) DSc(UCC) FRCP(Lond) FRCP(Glasg) DTMH(L’pool) FGCP FWACP FTWAS ORDER OF THE VOLTA (OFFICER) Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Former Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell and Other Haemoglobinopathies Korle Bu Teaching Hospital & Director Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, and 9 Harley Street, Phoenix Hospital Group, London W1G 9AL. www.sicklecell.md

  1. Konotey-Ahulu F I D. Tafracher – Personal View Tafracher – Personal View. BMJ 1975; 329: 1(5953): 329 (Feb. 8) The Ghanaian de-vulgarising prefix www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/1/5953/329.pdf
  2. Kmietowicz Zosia. Boys in England to get HPV vaccine from next year. BMJ 2018; 362; doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k3237 July 24 2018
  3. UK Government HPV vaccine to be given to boys in England – GOV.UK
    https://www.gov.uk/…/hpv-vaccine-to-be-given-to-boys-in-england Boys aged between 12 and 13 in England will be given a vaccine to protect
  4. New Scientist www.newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/…/2174940-hpv-vaccine-to-be-offered-to-all-children-in-england-not-just-girls/
  5. Centres for Disease Control CDC USA. Mar 26, 2018 … The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all boys and girls aged 11 to 12 should receive the HPV vaccine … HPV | Who Should Get Vaccine | Human Papillomavirus | CDC Jun 29, 2018 … Get answers to common questions about HPV vaccines here. … All kids who are 11 or 12 years old should get two shots of HPV vaccine six to … If your child is older than 14 years, three shots will need to be given over 6 months. … Teen boys and girls who did not start or finish the HPV vaccine series when … https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/parents/vaccine.html
  6. MIRROR UK. HPV vaccine will be offered to ALL boys aged 12 and 13 to help … https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/…/hpv-vaccine-offered-boys-aged-12972538
  7. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/…offer-hpvvaccination…boys…/story?id vaccine can guard against oral, throat, and anal cancers.
  8. The INDEPENDENT. HPV vaccination to be introduced for all teenage boys in UK … https://www.independent.co.uk/…/hpv-vaccination-teenage-boys-uk-introduced-girls-cervical-cancer-risk-a8461376.html
  9. The GUARDIAN. Call to extend HPV vaccine to boys as cancer rates soar | Society …https://www.theguardian.com/…/mar/…/hpv-vaccine-boys-cancer-rates
    Mar 31, 2018 … HPV vaccine. Call to extend HPV vaccine to boys as cancer rates soar … In the UK, all schoolgirls are offered the vaccine from the age of 12 or… Call to extend HPV vaccine to boys as cancer rates soar | Society … The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which can also guard against oral, throat and anal cancers, will be offered to boys aged 12 to 13 in …
  10. The TELEGRAPH. Girls and boys should be given HPV jab at primary school, doctors say https://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/girls-boys-should-given-hpv-jab-primary- school-doctors-say/ Jun 25, 2018 … Girls and boys should be given the HPV jab while at primary school, … of a motion which called for the vaccination to be offered to “all school …
  11. COSMOPOLITAN.COM. Doctors Aren’t Regularly Offering HPV Vaccines to Boys, and That’s … https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex…/why-boys-need-hpv-vaccine/ Mar 27, 2018 … Doctors Aren’t Regularly Offering HPV Vaccines to Boys, and That’s almost every sexually active person gets HPV at some point in their lives.
  12. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Clinical epidemiology, not sero-epidemiology, is the answer to Africa’s AIDS problem BMJ (Clin Res Ed) June 201987; 294(6587): 1593-1594 6587 doi:10,11.36/bmj.294.6586.1593 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/294/1593.pdf [Question 2 “What type of ‘abnormal sex‘ did the one girl have and the other not?”
  13. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Group specific component and HIV infection. Lancet 1987; 1: 1267
  14. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Origin and transmission of AIDS. Journal of Royal Society of Medicine 1987; 80: 720.
  15. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Extensive palatal echymosis from fellatio – note of caution with AIDS at large. British Journal of Sexual Medicine 1987; 14: 286-287.
  16. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Surgery and risk of AIDS in HIV-positive patients. Lancet 1987; 2(8568): 1146. November 14 1987.
  17. Konotey-Ahulu FID. AIDS in Africa: Misinformation and Disinformation, Lancet 1987; 2(8552): 206-208. July 25.
  18. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Lancet 1988, 2(8603): 163-164.
  19. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. HIV-2 in West Africa. Lancet 1989. 1(8637): 553.
  20. Konotey-Ahulu FID. An African on AIDS in Africa. (Guest Editorial). The AIDS Letter – Royal Society of Medicine 1989, No 11, Feb/March 1989, pp 1-3. http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/aidsinafrica/konoteyahulu/art1_cvref113.htm
  21. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Slowing HIV contagion among Africans. International Journal of STD & AIDS 1991; 2: 139. Mar-April (Stressing the need to link local preventive measures of AIDS to known epidemiologic factors which differ from one African country to another).
  22. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. HIV antibody positive sub-Saharan African patients in UK. Lancet 1990, 335: 46-47. (Response to S Murphy et al Nov 18, p1225 that “all
    patients who have lived in or worked in sub-Saharan Africa in the past ten years should be offered HIV antibody testing”.) http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/1990/AD901693.html
  23. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. African AIDS through African eyes (Guest Editorial). AIDS Analysis Africa 1991; March/April 1991. (The first invited Editorial of this new companion to AFRICA ANALYSIS).
  24. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. AIDS in Africa: Another Perspective. International Pharmacy Journal 1992, 6: 92-99 (English & French). (Invited Paper.)
  25. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. What is AIDS? Tetteh-A’Domeno Company, Watford, England, 1989, 227 pages ISBN: 0 9515442 0 9 [Reprinted 1996] http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/aidsinafrica/konoteyahulu/whatisaids.htm
  26. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Some thirty features of AIDS in Africa. Annales Universitaires des Sciences de la Santé 1987; 4: 541-544. [French and English]
  27. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. AIDS in Africa. Policy Review (Heritage Foundation Publication, Washington DC) Fall 1990; No 54: 78-9. (Invited comment on Professor Peter Duesberg’s thesis in the Summer Issue that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.)
  28. Konotey-Ahulu, FID. The AIDS crisis in Africa: a survey. In: Appropriate Technologies for AIDS Management in Africa Editor Kihumbu Thairu, 3-7 September 1990 Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi. Commonwealth Secretariat London pp 24-27.
  29. Quartey JKM, Konotey-Ahulu FID. The domiciliary management of AIDS in a rural community in Africa. In: Appropriate Technologies for AIDS Management in Africa Editor Kihumbu Thairu, 3-7 Sept 1990, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi. Commonwealth Secretariat London pp 42-44.
  30. Adler Michael. Diseases in the homosexual male. London 1988. Ed Tinker J. Bloomsbury Series in Clinical Science (204 pages)
  31. Owen WF. The clinical approach to the male homosexual. Med Clinics of North America 1986; 70: 499-535.
  32. Donnelly Laura. Children aged five carrying out sex abuse seen on social media. Daily Telegraph – Front page Monday 30 July 2018.
  33. Anand Joginder K. HPV vaccination. Is that the only prevention? BMJ Rapid Response July 30 2014 www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g47839
  34. Ramphul Kamleshun. Following the path set by the others in HPV prevention. https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3237/rapid-responses BMJ Rapid Response July 31 2018 to Kmietowicz Z. Boys in England to get HPV vaccine from next year. BMJ 2018; 362: k3237.
  35. Yasin Karimbocus. Cancer du col de l’utérus: le vaccin ‘Human Papilloma Virus’ introduit dans les écoles. 2016. https://defimedia.info/cancer-du-col-de-luterus-le-vaccin-human-papillom…(accessed July 31, 2018).
  36. HEALIO – Infectious Disease News, November 2011. ACIP: HPV vaccination recommended for 11- to 12-year-old boys https://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/vaccine-preventable-diseases/news…..campaign=Healio…TrendMD
  37. Stanley Margaret, O’Mahony Colm, Barton Simon. HPV vaccination – What about the boys? BMJ 2014;349:g4783 (2 Aug) doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4783 (29 July 2014)
  38. Townsend Mark. Oral sex lessons to cut to cut rates of teenage pregnancy http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/09/society.schools – 72k The Guardian/The Observer Sunday 9 May 2004.
  39. Paton Graeme. Children aged 5 to get sex education. Daily Telegraph. London Thursday, October 33 2008.
  40. Goldberg DJ, Green ST, Kennedy DH, Emslie JAN, Black DJ. HIV and orogenital transmission. Lancet 1988; ii: 1368.
  41. Rosenbaum W, Gharakahanian S, Cardon B et al, HIV transmission by oral sex. Lancet 1988; ii: 1395.
  42. Spitzer PG, Weiner NJ. Transmission of HIV infection from a woman to a man by oral sex. New England Journal of Medicine 1989; 320: 251.
  43. Konotey-Ahulu FID. Vaccination for genital warts to prevent cervical cancer: principles first, please, before details. BMJ Rapid Response Nov 12 2008 www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/337/oct23_1/a2186#204534
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Male Procreative Superiority Index (MPSI)

Male Procreative Superiority Index (MPSI): 500 children born to just 17 sperm donors

The mathematical Genetic Index that I invented more than 30 years ago “Male Procreative Superiority Index (MPSI)” [British Medical Journal 1980 Volume 281 (6256) pages 1700 to 1702] was meant to explain not only the very high Sickle Cell Trait frequency in certain populations through Polygamy, but also to indicate male superior contribution to what the Daily Telegraph Science Editor (May 7 Front page & page 7) called other “defective genes” in her article “500 children born to just 17 sperm donors”.

But in another article in Journal of Genetic Disorders & Genetic Reports May 13 2014 “History Versus Limits of Science: Is Solomonic Genius a Y Chromosome Phenomenon?” I went further to show that since 1901 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to more than 800 individuals of whom at least 180 (22%) have been recipients of genes from King Solomon – wisest man on earth – who “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines” [1Kings chapter 11 verse 3]. His MPSI was enormous. The fact that Jewish women’s Nobel Prize winners is a whopping 38% among the world’s females is, I said, “not that solomonic genius resides in the Y chromosome, but that it allows many more offspring than the female”.

Talk these days of Gender Equality is misplaced. Nine seconds and the male’s contribution to baby formation is complete. Females require 9 months! Any reader of this post on Facebook or Linked-In can, by using known relatives like male-female adult twins, prove conclusively that the male twin has in many cases and in any society more children than his sister, thanks to the menopause that halts further female procreation.

Take in Europe even, the divorced male twin who may marry again, and again, and again, does he stop having children with a younger wife simply because his twin sister had her menopause a decade ago? Or take my own Africa, how many women have the same number of children as the man who made them pregnant? Gender Equality makes no procreative sense either in Europe or in Africa. The mathematically minded among us may Google my article “MPSI” and study how the Index can be derived. Also read “History versus Limits of Science: Is Solomonic Genius a Y Chromosome Phenomenon?” to appreciate that the particular gene in question does not have to be in the man’s Y chromosome, but (as I said in the article) “it allows many more offspring than the female”.

Two further points (a) and (b) arise from my MPSI which did not escape one world-class geneticist. In his 2007 book “FIFTY YEARS OF HUMAN GENETICS – A Festschrift and liber amicorum to celebrate the life and work of GEORGE ROBERT FRASER” Oxford University’s world-class Geneticist Professor George Fraser (Remember Fraser Syndrome?) thought my MPSI important enough to include it as one chapter in this 568-page book under the title: “The Male Procreative
Superiority Index (MPSI): It’s relevance to genetical counselling ion Africa”. What was the point I made that has eluded many scientists?

(a) In that chapter I pointed out that something like Prostate Cancer that textbooks mention as having a genetic preponderance among Africans at home and in the Diaspora can be explained with the African’s generally high MPSI. I said (page 49): “As Africans are living longer, the husband with common diseases compatible with lifespan of appropriate length, such as essential hypertension, diabetes mellitus, gout, and even prostate cancer, might in the same way account for more genetic pathology in future generations than would be passed on by any of his wives”. Could Chinese low incidence of prostate cancer be due to the men once forced by Law to have just one child?

(b) Has present severe pressure on African countries for same sex marriage not got more to do with Population Control than Human Rights? MPSI would be meaningless!

Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu, MD FRCP DTMH, Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

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Do You Believe in God?

Do you believe in God?

Personal Answer to The Question “Do You Believe in God?

Mentioning God 4 times in headlines June to December 2017 [1-4] the BMJ is clearly not scared of ridicule from the author of “The God Delusion” and “The Greatest Show on Earth: the evidence for evolution” Richard Dawkins [5 6]. Numerous publications demolish the “scientific” foundation of his militant atheism [7-22]. Reading Professor David Berlinski’s excellent book “THE DEVIL’S DELUSION: ATHEISM AND ITS SCIENTIFIC PRETENSIONS” [23] I discern a vast difference between his Princeton PhD-reasoning and Dawkins’s Oxford University DPhil-cogitations. Thankfully, Oxford University has at least 3 other DPhils who believe in the GOD Dawkins denies: Dr Jim Packer’s “KNOWING GOD” is gem of a Classic [24]; Professor John Lennox outshines Professor Richard Dawkins [25 26] in Public Debates, and Dawkins’s previous fellow atheist Professor Alister McGrath writes: “There are many who are deluded about God, and I used to be one of them” [27]. His bestseller “THE DAWKINS DELUSION? Atheist fundamentalism and the denial of the divine” [27] states (page 64) “The God Delusion is a work of theatre, rather than scholarship -….” Alister McGrath and his wife Joanna Collicutt McGrath conclude their book with this question: “Might atheism be a delusion about God?” [27]

TO WHOM IS THIS QUESTION DIRECTED? [1]
The “you” of Modern English is ambiguously singular and plural. I prefer “thou” and “ye” of yesteryears, and I split the question into “Dost thou acknowledge God’s existence?” and “Dost thou believe in God?” Answering “Yes!” to both I rest my confidence on 3 supra-scientific Facts: History, Miracle (properly defined), and Personal Experience.

HISTORY
Historical events that cannot be fathomed through Science are often either dismissed as myths (never happened) or explained away somehow. Professor Know-All’s comments in the BMJ on 4 historical events in Clinical Medicine that I called “supra-scientific” prove my point [28]. The fourth event I described was when my robust younger brother announced on Friday 16th December one year that he had a week to live, and the following Wednesday 21st December as our mother was baking cakes for Christmas he said none of us would be eating cakes that Christmas and we laughed him to scorn; then playing football with him on Friday 23rd December we were both struck by lightning which killed him instantly, and left me with a facial burn [29]. Not only did Jerry have “a week to live”, but also no one ate cakes at Christmas 1949 in Odumase-Krobo while Rev D A Konotey-Ahulu’s second son lay unburied on Christmas Day. Professor Know-All’s “scientific” verdict was “Your brother was accident prone!” [30].

Moses saw the burning bush that was not consumed and, advancing to investigate, heard “Moses, Moses! Draw not nigh hither: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground”. He was petrified when the voice said “I AM THAT I AM …Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel ‘I AM hath sent me unto you’” [31]. Truth of this historical event baffles atheists. That Moses went on to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt is sheer history [32].

When I date my cheques 20th January 2018 I am proclaiming that 20 Centuries ago The Lord Jesus Christ said in Jerusalem “Before Abraham was I AM” [33], the very name that Moses heard at the burning bush. I do not appeal to Science for help in validating the historicity of The Lord Jesus Christ who said 40 times in Apostle John’s Gospel that he was sent [34]. His origins and deeds can only be described as miraculous.

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?
December 1958 to March 1959 was a bad winter for this African in London. Weeks before Final Exams in April 1959 to graduate as a doctor I was admitted with virus pneumonia to Westminster Hospital in Horseferry Road under Dr (later) Sir Richard Bayliss, Queen’s Physician. If I recovered there was no way I could pass the exam because my revision plans were ruined. Discharged in time to sit the Finals, I passed.

My friend Richard Alderson, brilliant English Teacher, and fellow member of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ Westminster Chapel [35], later saw me and asked how I did. His immediate response when I said “I passed. It’s a miracle!” taught me the correct meaning of the word: “If you had the brain of a hedgehog that would be a miracle”. Exactly! True miracles are way beyond the merely supra-scientific. The hedgehog-brain-answering-exam-questions-on-placenta-praevia type of historical event that defies scientific explanation, is what some scientists deny ever happened. But Nobel Prize winner Sir Peter Medawar published “The Limits of Science” [36]. Lesser-brained scientists disagree, claiming (like Professor Know-All) to have answers for everything.

Well then, “Crucified, dead, and buried; the third day The Lord Jesus rose from the dead” is not Science so it is not History either? Does History not confirm mysterious truths which Science cannot fathom? [37 38]. I knew some Resurrection deniers who hated The Lord Jesus Christ. Their “OK, Jesus rose from the dead, so what?” revealed much. Were they God haters rather than just atheists? Are we really in a “Post-Truth World?” [39].

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
“GOD is a SPIRIT, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” [40] – words of The Lord Jesus Christ once quite meaningless to me. Science had/has no definition for “spiritual things” [41-43]. But on Friday 24 October 1952, alone in my university rooms in Ghana reading other words of The Lord Jesus [44] HE miraculously revealed Himself to me. There’s no scientific explanation for what happened that night. Subdued and tearful, I went next-door to tell fellow student James Mustaffah: “Felix will never be the same again!” [45]. I was never the same again. Similar experiences described in Eric Metaxas’s remarkable biographies of Bonhoeffer, Wilberforce, and Luther [46-48] demonstrate this divine intertwining of History, Miracle, and Personal Experience. For me to understand spiritual things now is a Miracle. O Thank GOD!

Competing Interest: Believer in The Lord Jesus Christ [Nuntsɔ Yesu Kristo]
felix@konotey-ahulu.com Twitter@profkonoteyahul

Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu FGA MB BS MD(Lond) DSc(UCC) FRCP(Lond) FRCP(Glasg) DTMH(L’pool) FGCP FWACP FTWAS ORDER OF THE VOLTA (OFFICER) Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Former Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell and Other Haemoglobinopathies Korle Bu Teaching Hospital & Director Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, and 9 Harley Street, Phoenix Hospital Group, London W1G 9AL. Website: www.sicklecell.md

1 Saripanidis Savros. Do you believe in God? 24 August 2017 BMJ Rapid Response http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j4669/rapid-responses Re¨Kevin Barraclough Do you believe in God? 319:doi 10.1136/bmj.319.7214.929a

2 Burridge Stan. Three forms of identification and a letter from God.
BMJ 25 Oct 2017. 359: j4669. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j4669 pmid: 29070597.

3 Donne J. Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness | BMJ Supportive & Palliative spcare.bmj.com/content/bmjspcare/7/3/273.full.pdf June 27 2017.
John Donne’s sonnet ‘Death be not proud’ is a favourite reading at funerals; but his ‘Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness’ is one of the great poems in the language.

4 Keown Daniel. What God forgot to tell surgeons: the science of acupuncture Review http://aim.bmj.com/content/acupmed/31/3/345.full.pdf by Anne-Marie Marlow. Downloaded on December 8, 2017.

5 Dawkins Richard. The God Delusion. London – Transworld Publications 2007.

6 Dawkins Richard. The Greatest Show on Earth. Free Press, New York, 2009

7 Sarfati Jonathan. The Greatest Hoax On Earth? Refuting Dawkins On Evolution. Creation Book Publishers. Atlanta Georgia, USA 2010. ISBN 978-0-949906-73-1 [333 pages]

8 Evolution’s Achilles Heels – 9 PhD Scientists explain evolution’s fatal flaws – in areas claimed to be its greatest strengths. Foreword by Carl Wieland. Creation Book Publishers, Powder Springs, Georgia USA 2014. ISBN 978-1-921643-82-8 [272 pp]

9 Sarfati Jonathan. Refuting Evolution. Amazon.com: Books 9780949906731 htpps://www.amazon.com/Refuting.Evolution-Jonathan-Sarfati/dp/0949906735
https://creation.com/refuting-evolution-index [A handbook for students, parents, and teachers countering the latest arguments for evolution]

10 Sarfati Jonathan. Refuting Evolution 2. A sequel that comprehensively counters arguments that support evolution (as presented in TV Documentaries and Scientific American) www.amazon.co.uk/refuting+evolution+2 2004 ISBN: 0-949906-27-1 [235 pages]

11 Penner JG. Evolution Challenged by Language and Speech. Minerva Press, London W1R 7YB. 2000 ISBN 0 75411 092 3. [403 pages]

12 Gitt Werner. In the beginning was Information – A Scientist Explains the Incredible Design in Nature. Master Books (New Leaf Publishing Group) AR 72638 USA ISBN-13: 978-0-89051-461-0 & 10: 089051-461-5 (264 pages).

13 Gitt Werner. Did God use Evolution? Christliche Literatur-Verbreitung e.V. Postfach 11 01 35.33661 Bielefeld Germany 2nd Edition 2001. [160 pages]

14 Sanford J C. Genetic Entropy. FMS Publications (FMS Foundation) USA, Fourth Edition 2014. ISBN 978-0-9816316-0-8 [271 pages]

15 Wieland Carl. One Human Family. The Bible, Science, Race & Culture. Creation Book Publishers, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 2011 www.onehumanfamily.us [378 pages]

16 Andrews Edgar. Who Made GOD? Searching for a Theory of Everything. EP Books, Pistyll Hall, Pistyll, Holywell, CH8 7SH www.epbooks.org 2009 (324 pp).

17 Rendle Short John. Green Eye of the storm. Controversy between Science and Christianity in the lives of Arthur Rendle-Short (1880-1953); Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888); George John Romanes (1848-1894). The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh/Pennsylvania 1998. ISBN 0 85151 7277 [294 pages]

18 Hoyle Fred. The Intelligent Universe. Michael Joseph, London, 1985, page 25 “Why has the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection managed for upwards of a century, to fasten itself like a superstition on so-called enlightened opinion? Why is the story still defended so vigorously?” [This from a Cambridge University Professor, & a Fellow of UK’s prestigious Royal Society FRS]

19 Sarfati Jonathan. By Design – Evidence for Nature’s Intelligent Designer – The God of the Bible. Creation Book Publishers 2008 Atlanta Georgia, USA www.creationbookpublishers.com [260 pages]

20 Konotey-Ahulu FID. The God Delusion title devalues sensible discourse. BMJ Rapid Response www.bmj.com/content/335/7629/1099.1/rr-0 October 19 2016.

21 Blanchard John. Does GOD believe in Atheists? Evangelical Press 2001, USA P O Box 84, Auburn, MA 01501, USA ISBN 0 85234 460 0 [656 pages]

22 Blanchard John. Is GOD past His Sell-By Date? Evangelical Press 2007. P O Box 825, Webster, NY 14580 & Faverdale North Industrial Estate, Darlington, DL3 0PH, England. [268 pages]

23 Berlinski David. The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) 2009; 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810. ISBN: 978-0-465-01937-3

24 Packer JI. KNOWING GOD. Hodder and Stoughton. London 1973 [256 pp].

25 Has Science Buried God? Dr. Richard Dawkins vs. Dr. John Lennox …
983thesnake.com/has-science-buried-god-dr-richard-dawkins-vs-dr-john-lennox-the-…18 Nov 2015 – In this fascinating debate, Dr. Richard Dawkins and Dr. John Lennox discuss the question of whether science has buried God.

26 The God Delusion Debate: Richard Dawkins and John Lennox …
www.trentarwine.com › Atheism › Debates19 Jan 2017 – In Birmingham, Alabama, Professor Richard Dawkins and his Oxford University colleague, Professor John Lennox, engaged in a lively debate over what is arguably the most critical question of our time: the existence of God. The debate centred on Dawkins’ views as expressed in his “The God Delusion”.

27 McGrath Alister with McGrath JC. The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the denial of the divine. SPCK, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST. 2007 ISBN 978-0-281-05927-0.

28 Konotey-Ahulu FID. The supra-scientific in clinical medicine: a challenge to Professor Know-All. doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1452 Brit Med J 2001; 323(7327): 1452-1453 (22-29 Dec) http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/323/7327/1452.pdf

29 Konotey-Ahulu FID. Case of lightning burns. BMJ 1963; 1: 1547. June 8. Doi:10.1136/bmj.1.5344.1547 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/1/5344/1547.apdf

30 Konotey-Ahulu FID. Superstition and phenomena in Africa. Personal View. BMJ 1969; 2:48 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/3/5664/235.pdf April 15 doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5648.48

31 Holy Bible: Exodus chapter 3 verses 1-10. [Moses commissioned to go and lead Israelites out of Egypt].

32 Holy Bible: The Passover. Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 to 51. [Verse 51 “And it came to pass, …, that The LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies” [A supra-scientific historical event]

33 LORD JESUS CHRIST. “Most assuredly, I say unto you, before Abraham was I AM”. St John chapter 8 verse 58.

34 Konotey-Ahulu FID. MILLENNIUM Hymn – TIME WAS CREATED (Verse 3 of the 7 verses emphasises 40 times The LORD JESUS said in St John’s Gospel He was sent into the world and why – http://bit.ly/cRrZ0s (0 is zero, not o) 2000
Video with music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hconD91uNs

35 Murray Iain. Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1980. Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh [See Reference 24 of http://bit.ly/2igdDg2 for more details on him]

36 Medawar Peter. The Limits of Science. Oxford University Press. 1985.

37 Konotey-Ahulu FID. History versus Limits of Science: Is Solomonic Genius a Y Chromosome Phenomenon? J Genet Disorders Genetic Reports 2014; 3: 2 http://bit.ly/1wyq5H5

38 Konotey-Ahulu FID. “Private Thoughts: There is no evidence that I was born on a Saturday. Postgraduate Medical Journal of Ghana 1: 32-33” [which often proved the superiority of history over science in arriving at truth] 2012.

39 Konotey-Ahulu FID. Evidence in a post-truth world: Scientists’ Misinformation and Disinformation http://bit.ly/2igdDg2 Response to Dr Margaret McCartney’s “seams of multiple misinformation” pervading the scientific world – “Evidence in a post-truth world”. BMJ 2016; 355: 16363, November 28, 2016.

40 LORD JESUS CHRIST. To the Samaritan woman at the well: “GOD is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth”. St John’s Gospel chapter 4 verse 24.

41 Lloyd-Jones DM. Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Amazon’s Book Store www.amazon.co.uk>Spiritual-De ISBN 9780802813879 [One of top 100 Millennium Books]

42 Konotey-Ahulu FID. The spiritual and the psychological in Clinical Medicine. (Personal View) BMJ 1977; 1: 1595 www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/1/6076/1595.pdf doi:10,1136/6076/1595 June 15 “There is a vast area of man’s experience called the spiritual realm which neither Freudian psychoanalysis nor the scientific method can fathom…Approaches to scientific truth and spiritual truth are different. One scientist will read Dr Lloyd-Jones’ ‘Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure’ (Reference 41 above) with much profit while another, with the same qualifications, will find it unintelligible”

43 Lloyd-Jones DM. Conversions Psychological and Spiritual. (Critique of Dr William Sargant’s “Battle for the Mind”) https://www.amazon.co.uk>uk 9780851100098 December 1 1959.

44 LORD JESUS CHRIST. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. St Matthew’s Gospel chapter 9 verse 13. [Reading of which at about 8 pm 24th October 1952 alone in my university rooms in Legon, Ghana, seemed to switch on spiritual eyes that changed me for good]

45 Barker Peter, Boadi-Siaw Samuel. Changed by the WORD – The Story of Scripture Union in Ghana. Scripture Union Ghana, P O Box AN 7388, Accra-North, Ghana. ISBN 9964-87-800-1 “Felix will never be the same again” – p. 18.

46 Metaxas Eric. BONHOEFFER – Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Thomas Nelson USA, August 2011 (626 pages).

47 Metaxas Eric. AMAZING GRACE. Biography of William Wilberforce. Authentic Media, USA, October 2013 (344 pages).

48 Metaxas Eric. MARTIN LUTHER: The Man Who Rediscovered GOD and Changed the World. Viking Press, USA, October 2017 (416 pages).

Competing interests: Competing Interest: Believer in The Lord Jesus Christ [Nuntsɔ Yesu Kristo]

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Facebook Enquirer November 2017

Facebook enquiries

Look at www.sicklecell.md for correct terms.

What do you mean by sicklecell?
Sickle Cell Trait (Normal gene + Abnormal gene)? Or do you mean sickle cell disease (Abnormal gene + Abnormal gene)?
To simplify things, I call Normal gene NORM and Abnormal gene ACHE because it takes 2 Abnormal genes (ACHEACHE) to make someone ache with the pain of sickle cell crisis. So, sickle cell trait is NORMACHE.

On my www.sicklecell.md Home Page you will see the kanad I invented to explain what happened when my Trait father NORMACHE married my Trait mother NORMACHE. They had 11 children of whom 3 had ACHEACHE, suffering sickle cell disease. Four of us were NORMACHE like our parents (no problems) and 4 also had no problems with NORMNORM.

It is important that readers of this Facebook each find out what Haemoglobin genes have been inherited from their parents. If, like my 3 siblings, any has inherited abnormal (ACHE) haemoglobin gene from each parent then there is no NORM gene to protect from body ache under certain circumstances. I never advise a person with ACHE Haemoglobin gene not to marry someone else, remembering that my parents would have been advised not to marry as some American States are keen to legislate.

Study the kanad video, and come to your own decision. People with sickle cell disease (ACHEACHE) have inherited some brilliant genes from their parents, like beauty, elegance, brains, and become ACHIEVERS in life as we have seen in Ghana. Visit my website, and take time with my Genetic Counselling and Voluntary Family Size Limitation (GCVFSL) http://bit.ly/1w3BuvM
Please get back to me if you can’t access it.

Finally, Sickle (S) is not the only aching gene we can be born with. The second commonest abnormal Haemoglobin aching gene is “C”. Test for “S” alone (Sickle Cell Test) is not enough. I always test for other genes, not just for Sickle Cell Trait. You can be Sickle Test Negative (that is No “S”) and yet be “C” Positive, enabling you and your Sickle-Positive-“S” spouse to have a child who has two aching genes “S” + “C” to produce Hereditary Rheumatism (Sickle Cell Disease), never ever to be called “SC Trait”, but only to be known as “SC Disease”. Sickle Cell Trait is “AS”, never “SC”.

I was born surrounded by both so I know the difference. Note that Sickle Cell Disease ‘SS’ is the only phenotype known as Sickle Cell Anaemia. These terms which are not “Konotey-Ahulu terms”; but from WHO which does not recognise the term “Sickle Cell Anaemia Disease”. If you have ‘S’ from both parents you have “Sickle Cell Anaemia” (SS). If you prefer to say you have “Sickle Cell Disease” then you need to add the phenotype and say “I have Sickle Cell Disease (SS)”. If a lady has Sickle Cell Disease (SC) and develops severe anaemia from heavy periods doctors are not entitled to say she has Sickle Cell Anaemia. She is still “SC” and not “SS”. She has Sickle Cell Disease (SC) with Anaemia, but not “Sickle Cell Anaemia Disease”. [Please read this again!].

Be the one to teach your doctors if they are confused about these terms. I once mentioned how I referred a lady to have her gall stones removed by a world class Surgeon to whom I wrote this: “Please help this Sickle Cell Anaemia (SS) lady”. Less than one hour later in the same hospital he said he called and said to me: “Thank you Felix for sending me that delightful Sickle Cell Trait lady”. So even world-class Specialists don’t know WHO definitions of who has Trait (1 Normal Haemoglobin gene) and who has Disease (No Normal Haemoglobin gene).

TERMS EXPLAINED:

Sickle Cell Trait (1 Normal Gene A+1 Abnormal Gene ‘S’) I call NORMACHE which never gives Hereditary Aches. For Sickle Cell Disease (1 Abnormal Gene ‘S’+any Abnormal Gene ‘S’ or ‘Other’) I prefer ACHEACHE as S+S, S+C, S+D, S+K, S+Korle Bu, S+Osu Christiansborg, S+FPersistence, S+O, S+Kwahu, are all aching Sickle Cell Diseases. It takes 2 ACHES to cause ache.

NOTE CAREFULLY: Normal Haemoglobin ‘A’+Abnormal ‘S’ is Sickle Cell Trait (AS). Normal ‘A’+ Abnormal ‘C’ is Sickling Negative Haemoglobin C Trait (AC).

Haemoglobin gene ‘A’ is NOT to be confused with BLOOD GROUP ‘A’. These 2 genes labelled “A” have nothing to do with each other. To check for Abnormal Haemoglobins ask for “Haemoglobin Type”, not Blood Group.

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Sickle Cell Trait and Sickle Cell Disease

SICKLE CELL TRAIT and SICKLE CELL DISEASE

On Facebook 15th November 2017 responding to something on a site which described itself as “Sickle Cell Anemia Disease”, I wrote this:

“Please get your correct definitions of sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait from www.sicklecell.md Let no one deceive you re sickle cell trait. Study and learn”

I then got this message: “You know I have heard from people with sickle cell trait get pain once a year or something it’s not serious but I hear they still can have symptoms I mean it is blood line you know”.

Visiting www.sicklecell.md proved to some doctors that sickle cell disease has often been wrongly called sickle cell trait, and vice versa, with serious consequences.

“Pain once a year” is no proof of sickle cell trait. Millions of people around the world who do not have sickle cell trait have pains more than once a week!

Doctors writing SCT for sickle cell trait imply that “SC” is a Trait, which is wrong because “SC” is 2 Abnormal Haemoglobins – a disease phenotype. The Trait must have NORMAL Haemoglobin A plus S, and the “A” fraction must always be greater than the “S”. Sickle Cell Trait is written “AS Trait”, not SCT. If Electrophoresis shows “AS” (1 Normal gene A greater than S) and the person has symptoms like sickle cell disease then the person may well have Sickle Cell Quebec-Chori disease, with Hb Chori behaving like “A”. See [Konotey-Ahulu FID. Lancet February 29, 1992, page 555 http://bit.ly/2d18oOL

Beware of symptomatic sickle cell traits. Lancet, February 29, 1992, page 555.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PII0140-6736(92)90377-F/fulltext]

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FOUR THINGS YOU MUST READ ON SICKLE CELL DISEASE PATIENT

FOUR THINGS YOU MUST READ ON SICKLE CELL DISEASE PATIENT

This information for all ages has helped many families.

  1. Konotey-Ahulu FID. The inheritance of Sickle Cell Disease. New African January 2000, pp 40-43
    http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/pdfs/sicklecell_jan2001.pdf
  2. Konotey-Ahulu FID. The Person with Sickle Cell Disease. New African March 2001, pp 38-39.
    http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/pdfs/sicklecell_mar2001.pdf
  3. Konotey-Ahulu FID. The Teenager with Sickle Cell Disease. New African. June 2001, pp 40-42
    http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/pdfs/sicklecell_jun2001.pdf
  4. Konotey-Ahulu FID. The Adult with Sickle Cell Disease. New African Sep. 2001, pp 40-43.
    http://www.konotey-ahulu.com/pdfs/sicklecell_sep2001.pdf
    Also http://www.questia.com

Remember that these sickle cell disease children, teenagers, and adults have inherited from their parents other genes to make them brilliant, beautiful, and much else. They must be looked after properly to make them use their brilliant genes to become ACHIEVERS in life.

See www.sicklecell.md and learn.

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Good evening Prof: Should I marry this person?

Question: Good Evening Prof, A lady friend of mine is with SC since birth and she loves this guy who is AS. Should she go on with the marriage even though there is a 50% chance of having sickly children?

Kanad
ANSWER:
Dear C.M., It is not my normal habit to advise who should marry whom, but as you can see from the kanad pictured above with male phenotypes on one side, and female on the other your friend is “SC” (abnormal Haemoglobin ACHE ‘S’ gene from one of her parents, and abnormal Haemoglobin ACHE ‘C’ gene from the other parent, making her ache with sickle cell crisis at certain times.

As you observed, when the dice ACHEACHE on one side is thrown against the dice NORMACHE on the other the probability for each throw of the dice is 1 in 2 (50%) for ACHEACHE to show because the man will show NORM or ACHE with each throw. The sequence is unpredictable because the man may show NORM (‘A’) several times or ACHE (‘S’) several times. Moreover, depending on whether the lady’s ACHE is an egg carrying ACHE ‘S’ or egg with ACHE ‘C’ the children of this union may be ‘AC’ NORMACHE, (‘A’ from the man, ‘C’ from the lady, ‘AS’ NORMACHE like your lady friend’s man, ‘SS’ ACHEACHE, or ‘SC’ ACHEACHE like your lady friend. Please read this statement again until you can explain it to your lady friend. Now, my book “The Sickle Cell Disease Patient” describes exactly such a situation where a Staff Nurse “SC” asked me whether she should go ahead and marry her lover “AS”. After explaining to her just as I have done here, she said to me: “Doctor, I am a nurse and I can care for him when he is unwell. Moreover you have told your patients how to keep out of sickle cell crisis so even if we have “SS” or “SC” children we can cope.” Remember that my kanad shown above (Konotey-Ahulu Norm Ache Dice) has two main functions:

They show you (i) What Could Happen ie PROBABILITY, and what is more important (ii) PREDICTABILITY ie What Will Happen.

If someone tells me: “Doc, I have suffered too much with this hereditary ailment. I do not want any child of mine to suffer like I am doing. Show me the phenotype that I can marry so that even though I have ACHEACHE my children will never have ACHEACHE”. Well, simple: Pick the dice marked NORMNORM and it is impossible to have an ACHEACHE child. But remember that some ACHEACHE people are brighter, more beautiful, and more focussed than their siblings who do not ache. The first option is Genetic Gambling. The second option is Predicting Genetic Certainty.

But here is a beautiful true story: One of my brilliant ACHEACHE “SS” ACHIEVERS fell in love with a NORMACHE “AS” (Sickle Cell Trait) lady. They decided to go ahead and get married hoping that the first child will be from the NORM egg of the lady, and his ACHE sperm, then they will stop, and adopt their second child. Well Mr H.S. engaged this lady, married her, and they had a son, lovely son with all the elegance of the father and the combined genius of both of them, NORMACHE “AS” Sickle Cell Trait. The couple went on to adopt a daughter.

So my duty is to show the difference between Genetic Gambling (Probability), and Genetic Prediction with 100 per cent certainty. If ACHEACHE marries ACHEACHE all the children will be ACHEACHE as shown on the cover of my blue book:

See my website www.sicklecell.md Those who choose Genetic Gambling because they are madly in love should know what could happen. They will limit their family size as Mr H. S. and his wife have done.

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Sickle Cell Trait Confusion: Is It Deliberate? Or Is This Ignorance?

Sickle Cell Trait Confusion: Is It Deliberate? Or Is This Ignorance?

I speak with authority as one who was born into a Sickle Cell Disease home within a Sickle Cell Trait country. One in every 5 of us in southern Ghana including nurses, doctors, business men and women, judges, liars, thieves, university professors, Parliamentarians, athletes, crooks, footballers, Olympic Medallists, and boxers has the Sickle Cell Trait.

In Northern Nigeria with a population of 90 million there are 30 Million Sickle Cell Traits. One in every three babies born there in Kano, Sokoto, Maedeguru is Sickle Cell Trait. And in Accra where I worked at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital every 1 in 5 babies of the 13000 consecutive deliveries we tested in 12 months had Sickle Cell Trait.

What is more, 1 in every 3 of the white people in Greece where Lake Kopais used to be is Sickle Cell Trait! And now, lo and behold, “In Fontana August is Sickle Cell Trait Prevention Month”. Are they serious in suggesting Sickle Cell Trait needs preventing? Making 1 in 5 of us Ghanaians feel guilty for being born because we are Sickle Cell Trait? Even Sickle Cell Disease Patients need not feel guilty because they often have brilliant genes that their siblings do not possess.

Seriously, believe me, there are two kinds of readers of this Facebook post:

(1) Those who want to learn from me whom Nobel Laureate Professor Linus Pauling listened to when I delivered the Martin Luther King Award Lecture in Philadelphia on the Topic “The Vital Difference Between Sickle Cell Trait and Sickle Cell Disease”, and

(2) Those who prefer what Fontana teaches on Sickle Cell Trait.

For those who have time for me, please set time aside and study the following articles very, very, very carefully:

SICKLE CELL TRAIT

  1. Blaming sudden death on Sickle Cell Trait? http://bit.ly/1Eutn19 
  2. Sickle Cell Trait Misinformation and Disinformation http://bit.ly/1CqYHib
  3. Further Communication on Sickle Cell Trait Misinformation and Disinformation and Sickle Cell Terminology: Disease  or Disorder?          http://bit.ly/1Gm4gNP 
  4. World Sickle Cell Day 19h June 2014 http://bit.ly/1FuNXPi 
  5. Beware of symptomatic sickle cell traits. Lancet, February 29, 1992, page 555. http://bit.ly/2d18oOL
    http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PII0140-6736(92)90377-F/fulltext
  6. Dangerously flawed diagnosis of sickle cell trait in compartment syndrome rhabdomyolysis http://bit.ly/2d4t9Zd
    http://www.sicklecell.md/blog/index.php/2016/09/dangerously-flawed-diagnosis-of-sickle-cell-trait-in-compartment-syndrome-rhabdomyolysis-article/
  7. Sickle Cell Trait: As with statins when leading editors disagree please give principles same weight as details/
    http://www.sicklecell.md/blog/index.php/2016/09/statins-when-leading-editors-disagree-please-give-principles-same-weight-as-details/
    http://bit.ly/2dy5fUJ
  8.  http://bit.ly/2bRQ7B1    Tafracher BMJ 8th June 1975

This Ghanaian word Tafracher allows me to call a spade a spade, as it were. [It allows me to say articles describing Sickle Cell Trait as Sickle Cell Disease are (Tafracher) rubbish for how can a Sickle Cell Trait man run at 7000 ft at Olympic Games and beat the whole world with a disease?] 

If you absorb all this information you can help your colleagues and even your doctors in saying exactly what Sickle Cell Trait is, and what it is not.

Felix Konotey-Ahulu FGA MD(Lond) FRCP(Lond) FRCP(Glasg) DTMH FGCP FWACP FTWAS Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University Cape Coast Ghana, & Former Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor Sickle Cell & Other Haemoglobinopathies, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra Ghana, and 9 Harley Street London W1G 9AL [ www.sicklecell.md ] Twitter Felix@profkonoteyahul

Further BMJ Links especially for doctors, nurses & science graduates.

  1. Overseas Med. Graduates bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j574/rr-0
  2. Routine Tests not to be abandoned bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2091/rr-15
  3. BMA AGM 2017 On Abortion bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j3116/rr

Finally, Sickle (S) is not the only aching gene we can be born with. The second commonest abnormal Haemoglobin aching gene is “C”. Test for “S” alone (Sickle Cell Test) is not enough. I always test for other genes, not just for Sickle Cell Trait. You can be Sickle Test Negative (that is No “S”) and yet be “C” Positive, enabling you and your Sickle-Positive-”S” spouse to have a child who has two aching genes “S” + “C” to produce Hereditary Rheumatism (Sickle Cell Disease), never ever to be called “SC Trait”, but only to be known as “SC Disease”. Sickle Cell Trait is “AS”, never “SC”. I was born surrounded by both. I know the difference.

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World Sicklecell Disease Patient Week – Videos

World Sickle Cell Disease Patient Week

After a successful week of videos in July I have put them all together in one post for you to view.

Introduction
There is such an event called “World Sickle Cell Day” which falls in mid-June every year.

For me who had two brothers and one sister (Victor Agbetey, Jerry Tei and Sussie Konotey-Ahulu) with hereditary cold-season rheumatism or hemikom as this has always been known in my Krobo Tribe in Ghana as the name for Sickle Cell Disease – one day in a year is not enough attention given to a very important problem.

Day 1
Professor Konotey-Ahulu explains the reasons behind the Sicklecell Disease Patient Week and a bit about his history.

Day 2
Professor Konotey-Ahulu interviews an achiever of over 50 years old.

Day 3
Professor Konotey-Ahulu talks about the various African tribes which have various names for the Sicklecell disease. He also explains the difference between trait and the disease.

Day 4
Professor Konotey-Ahulu gives a round up of the videos published and a bit more history on what he found during his career.

Day 5
Professor Konotey-Ahulu continues to talk to an achiever on how he stopped the disease from taking over his life and reduced crises periods.

Day 6
Professor Konotey-Ahulu explains his dice (KANAD) and how it can help explain how people get the disease.

Day 7
An achiever Akosua M Dankwa talks about the Sicklecell Disease and how it has affected her life.

Books
The Sickle Disease Patient book is now on sale at a 50% discount. The book can now be purchased here http://blog.sicklecell.md/shop/ FREE KANAD dice with each purchase whilst stock lasts.

Links
Facebook Event – https://www.facebook.com/events/305588243201034
Books – http://blog.sicklecell.md/shop/