Challenges in providing supportive care for patients with sickle cell disease in Africa

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common non-infectious life-threatening disease of children in Africa and vary often can cause very severe pain and other crippling complications. On the other hand, relatively simple interventions as well as bone marrow transplantation can have a major impact on SCD. Providing effective supportive care for patients in Africa remains a major challenge; many health systems struggle to deliver the basic interventions that prevent complications and save lives. Limited access to early diagnosis is a critical barrier; newborn screening programs are still uncommon, leading to delayed treatment and higher childhood mortality.

Cure2Children is providing help to programs improving early diagnosis and supportive care for children living with SCD across in Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria. Unfortunately, however, there are many challenges ranging from getting even the simplest therapy to affected children to proper data collection, let alone offering cure by bone marrow transplantation.