Sickle
cell disease has remained highly prevalent in Nigeria.
According
to the National Demographic survey 2018, 20% of children age 6-59 months have
SCT (HbAS) and 2% have the haemoglobin C trait (HbAC).
To address this continued health challenge,
a workshop aimed at engaging critical stakeholders which include patients,
caregivers, health workers and policy makers and the media on the nature of
sickle cell disease has been held.
The meeting was organized by the
Sickle Pan Africa Research Consortium Nigeria Network (SPARC-NEt).
The essence of the meeting is also to
ascertain the challenges that patient face in accessing care and the best way
to provide the services to increase the number of patients.
Few
simple evidence-based interventions have been shown to reduce the morbidity and
mortality to SCD in developed countries. These, along with education of the
patients and caregivers about SCD and what to do to maintain good health has
been impactful in low-income settings.
Clinical
care is available for patients with SCD in secondary and tertiary health care
facilities in Nigeria but the majority of patients with SCD remain unreached in
the communities.
It is
proven that the curative therapy is bone marrow transplantation which though
available in few centres in the country, is largely unaffordable by the
majority of sufferers.
The
barriers to access to care and client expectations for services to meet the
needs of this patient population require appraisal.
SPARC-NEt led by Professor Obiageli E.
Nnodu comprises 25 health care centres across the six geopolitical zones of the
country with the hub at the Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Research and
Training, University of Abuja (CESRTA).
SPARC-NEt belong to a larger
consortium, Sickle Pan African Research Consortium (SPARCo) comprising six sub-Sahara
countries: Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia/Zimbabwe with a Data
Coordinating Centre in South Africa.
The main objectives of SPARCo are to
expand the existing sickle cell registry which currently has over 13,000
patients, establish and implement a uniform multi-level standard of care for
sub-Sahara Africa, strengthen existing skills and collaborative research in a
sustainable manner.
COV