The Federal government has restated its commitment to reducing the burden of sickle cell in the country. The minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, stated this at the opening ceremony and workshop of the Sickle Cell Pan African research Consortium, Nigeria Network.
Ehanire revealed that the national guideline for the management of sickle cell in the country will be reviewed and updated in order to accommodate new research findings in tackling sickle cell in the country.
Stakeholders in the Sickle Cell Pan African research Consortium, Nigeria Network, gathered to expand the sickle cell registry which currently has over 13,000 patients, to establish and implement simple, effective and scalable tools to address the high burden of Sickle cell wholistically.
Ehanire, represented by a Deputy Director in the ministry, Dr Alayo Sopokan, highlighted the government’s efforts in reducing the high burden of sickle cell while reiterating the government’s willingness to work with other stakeholders to further reduce the sickle cell burden in the country.
Similarly, the Director, University of Abuja Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Research and Training, Professor Obiageli Nnodu spoke on the centre’s contribution to tackling the burden of sickle cell which includes the use of low-cost rapid point of care tests in testing newborns.
Other stakeholders also highlighted the importance of research in the management and treatment of sickle cell disease.
Nigeria is said to be the country with the highest sickle cell disease burden in the world, with about 150,000 babies born every year.
With the current therapy available for sickle cell disease being bone marrow transplant which is expensive, and not readily available in the country, it is important that simple and cheap therapies are researched and developed in order to meet the needs of patients with sickle cell disease.
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