Nkiru Odinkemelu
With approximately 150, 000 kids born with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) each year in Nigeria, an expert in the field of Paediatric Hemato-oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT), Dr. Gaurav Kharya, has promised to collaborate with Nigerian government on BMT, which is the only available cure for SCD.
Kharya, Senior Consultant and Head Paediatric Haematology Oncology Immunology and BMT at Artemis Hospital, India, was recently on a medical mission in Nigeria to sensitise parents and caregivers of SCD patients on BMT and how to go about it in his centre.
Addressing the participants at Afriglobal Labs in Lagos, the doctor said he developed interest for Nigeria because of the high the burden of SCD in the country, how a number of them are good candidates for BMT but have unmet needs for it.
He stressed that of the over 50 BMTs he had performed in India, majority were Africans, with Nigerians topping the list.
Bone Marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside the bones, which produces blood cells while BMT also known, as Stem Cell Transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow stem cell.
According to the experts, BMT involves transplanting blood stems cells from a donor, which travel to the bone marrow, where they produce new blood cells and promote growth of new marrow.
A donor can be matched-related – a sibling with the same bone marrow type; a matched unrelated – volunteers who have the same bone marrow type as the patient; or Haploidentical or half-matched – family members, normally the mother or father.
Dr. Kharya, while fielding questions on how much it costs to get the transplant done for patients in India, said it was between 25, 000 to 35, 000 USD. He stressed that while the cost was higher in other centres, his had always tried to reduce it to give everyone who needed it a chance to get cured.
Acknowledging that finance had been the major barrier to a lot of people keying into the curative, he, however, said everything was possible through proper planning, since there is no age limit to BMT.
“Cost is a barrier, 25,000 to 35, 000 USD is huge, but the good news is that age is never a barrier to bone marrow transplant, this therefore allows you the time to do financial planning,” he said.
On whether he was ready to come down to Nigeria, the specialist said: “Yes, that has been my target but it is not just about bringing it to Nigeria, it is about running it successfully and whether this is actually helping or not because if we bring it down here, is it going to bring down the cost because obviously the medications will be coming from India? And once that is the case, it might be more expensive than it is there. So we might be saving money on equipment but what about the cost of medication and the physician who is coming down here, he has to be compensated for that because if he is staying for five to seven days, you know what that mean, so I really doubt that it will be cost effective.
He, however, did not rule out the possibility but stated that with strong commitment from the political class, it is possible.
Saying he was ready for collaboration, he did not hesitate to put it clear that BMT was not a one day job.
“It is a continuous process, it goes on for 90 days, after which you are a little bit relaxed; but you need to continue monitoring the patient but the donor can go home after about 10 days,” he said.
He allayed the fear of alleged patients’ inability to survive after returning from the transplant abroad.
His words: “No, that is not true. You just need to maintain good hygiene level. Infection level in India is almost the same as this country so that is a misconception. We prefer to keep the patient for three months in India, after that, intervention is less and then we send them here and they are in regular follow up with local doctors.”
The doctor, however, advised that prevention was better than cure, reiterating that the best advice would have been for two carriers not to get married but if they want to, they should take precaution.