From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The federal government confirmed on Saturday that Nigeria currently has the highest burden of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the world ahead of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and India, with an estimated 25 per cent of its adult population being carriers of defective S-gene.
The government recalled that World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 estimated that 2 per cent of new-borns in Nigeria were affected by sickle cell anaemia, giving a total of about 150,000 affected children born every year.
It also confirmed that about 50 to 80 per cent of the estimated 150,000 infants born yearly with SCD in Nigeria die before the age of five years and those that manage to survive suffer end-organs damage which shortens their lifespan including stroke.
Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire, in a statement to commemorate the 2021 Sickle Cell Day, with the theme “Shine the Light on Sickle Cell” said the global event was a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the increasing burden of SCD and the need to eliminate the negative notion associated with it, as well as building synergy with civil society organisations, international institutions and development partners towards the prevention, control and management SCD in Nigeria.
He stated that sickle cell disease, though endemic in Nigeria is also preventable, thus suggesting that everyone must make concerted efforts through genotype check before marriage and also key into the initiative so that, together, the epidemic can be halted.
Ehanire said: ‘In recognition of the huge burden of SCD in Nigeria, government has instituted several strategic interventions to address the challenges of the disease. These strategic interventions includes; establishment of six centres of excellence for the control and management of SCD with each equipped with HPLC and other complementary equipment.
‘National guidelines for the prevention, control and management of SCD including protocol for newborn screening were produced with e-copies available online; Integration of the Non-Communicable Diseases including SCD care and services into the primary healthcare services was initiated.
‘A draft Nigeria-PEN adapted from WHO-PEN included SCD for Nigeria taking into account the genetic counselling, diagnosis, newborn screening and comprehensive care package for SCD within the primary healthcare level with inbuilt cost-effective referral system; establishment of the Multi-sectorial Action Program (MSAP) technical committee involving different MDAs in addressing the prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases in Nigeria.
‘There was also mass advocacy and mobilisation for awareness creation on SCD and the importance of genetic counselling and testing for Hb genotype; validation study for the use of Point of Care Screening Test (POCT) kit for early identification and diagnosis of SCD in of new-born, children and adult at all levels of care in Nigeria.
‘Harmonisation of the various SCD bills pending at the National Assembly to increase Government attention for the prevention; control and management of SCD in the country within the framework of Non-Communicable Diseases control programme as part of UN-WHO strategy for the prevention, control and management of SCD.’
SCD is a genetic (hereditary) disorder that occurs when an individual inherited two abnormal haemoglobin (Hb) genes from both parents, at least one of which is HbS and the resulting symptoms and signs are due to abnormality in the shape of red blood cells.
In SCD, red blood cells are deformed, taken the shape of “sickle”, rigid and fragile and by reason of this being unable to sufficiently carry out their normal functions, notably oxygen delivery.
Available record shows that SCD affects nearly 100 million people in the world and is also responsible for over 50 per cent of deaths in those with the most severe form of the disease (Hb SS). It’s the most prevalent genetic disease in the WHO African Region.
In many countries of the region including Nigeria, 10 to 40 per cent of the population carries the sickle-cell gene resulting in estimated SCD prevalence of at least 2 per cent.