WHO urges action to contain the menace of sickle cell

Koforidua, May 10, GNA - The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for urgent policies by Africa governments to help provide essential care to sickle cell patients as well as help contain the disease that is responsible for 16 per cent of all under five deaths in some African countries.

It said with over 200,000 new cases being recorded each year, a comprehensive programme by African governments was urgently needed to reduce the rate of morbidity usually associated with the disease and bring hope to the sufferers.

Speaking at this year's celebration of the Africa Day of the Sickle Cell Disease at Koforidua on Wednesday, an official of the WHO, Dr Charles Fleischer-Djoleto, said urgent national policies must be designed to tackle the disease that has afflicted at least two per cent of the continent's population.

Dr Fleischer-Djoleto said the disease was also responsible for nine per cent of all under five mortalities on the continent and nine per cent of child-related deaths in West Africa. Experts say 90 per cent of the global burden of sickle cell anaemia, which is also known as clinical genetics, were borne by people of African descent.

The President of the Ghana Chapter of the Federation of National Associations Combating Sickle cell in Africa (FALDA), Dr K.E. Appiah, said of every 1,000 live births recorded in Ghana, 20 of them would have inherited the disease and its other variants from their parents.

Nearly 24 per cent of the 18 million Ghanaians, he said, were also carriers of the disease in their blood, necessitating the need for a more concerted national effort to create the awareness so the disease was not blamed on some metaphysical forces.

He advised parents not to abandon their children because they are carriers of the disease but rather encourage them to bear their ailment with fortitude since the sickle cell patient, like any other children, could live to a good old age when well managed.

The Clinical Genetics Co-ordinator at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr Osei Akoto, said there was hope for sickle cell sufferers but more specialized facilities would have to be created to screen and manage the cases.

He commended the efforts of some eminent Ghanaian scholars including Professor Konotey Ahulu and Professor Kwaku Ohene Frempong, for their pioneering work that had help brought some respite to sickle cell patients.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, said government was much aware of the severity of the problem and was tackling it as part of the Millennium Development Goals aimed at improving, in a holistic manner, social services to the people.

Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyirah, announced the establishment of a Clinical Genetics facility at the Koforidua Regional Hospital, bringing to seven, such facilities in the country.

The Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre (Dr) Oti Boateng, urged government to consider committing additional resources towards the management of sickle cell disease in view of the number of people affected and the excruciating pain usually associated with the condition.

Sickle cell disease is caused by the inheritance of two abnormal haemoglobins and its patients may suffer from many ailments including anaemia, jaundice, strokes, chronic leg ulcers as well as displacement of teeth, protrusion of upper incisor teeth and repeated infections.