First Global Congress on Sickle Cell Disease opens in Accra

Accra, July 21, GNA - Government would scale up the pilot project of new born screening for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) being undertaken in Kumasi and Tikrom in the Ashanti Region into a national programme.

The Minister of Health, Dr Ben Kunbour, said by the end of December, last year about 300,000 newborn babies had been screened and more than 5,000 of them were detected to have traits of the disease.

Four thousand of them enrolled at the Sickle Cell Clinic at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for regular and comprehensive management.

Dr Kunbour was addressing the opening session of the First Global Congress on Sickle Cell Disease in Accra on Wednesday.

It is under the theme "Sickle Cell Disease, 1910-2010: 100 Years of Science, Still Seeking Global Solutions."

It is being co-organised by the management of Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Sickle Cell Disease International Organisation, and Global Sickle Cell Research Network, with the support of Local Organising Committee (LOC).

The disease is a group of disorders that affects haemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body.

People with this disorder have a typical haemoglobin molecule called haemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape.

Professor Kwaku Frimpong of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with funds from US National Institute of Health and Professor Francis Kwesi Nkrumah, then Director of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra, initiated a pilot project that has proved feasible in a life saving programme in Africa.

Dr Kunbour explained that to implement the programme SCD Treatment Centres would be established in every region and major district hospitals.

This will be in addition to maternal and child health personnel, laboratory and other technical personnel who would be trained to conduct the screening and public education.

He said the National Health Insurance Authority had been mandated to provide free maternity and health care for children under five whether their parents were subscribers of health insurance or not adding "newborn screening is covered by insurance".

Dr Kunbour commended efforts by Professor Felix Konotey-Ahulu, Consultant and Sickle Cell Specialist, for his extensive research on the disease in the country, followed by comprehensive care shown in several countries to be the most important life saving public health intervention in the management of the disease.