Kisumu sets up centre to tackle sickle cell disease

A total of 21 out of 100 children in Kisumu are born with the sickle cell trait, new statistics show. 

The high cases of sickle cell anaemia in Kisumu have pushed the county government to set up a centre to manage the disease at the Jaramogi Odinga Oginga Teaching and Referral Hospital.
 
Already, Kisumu County has entered into collaborative agreements with the American Society of Haematology (ASH), Perkin Elmer-Finland, Norvatis Pharma and other African Countries that have interest in sickle cell disease (SCD).

Kisumu Chief officer for Health Dr George Ganda disclosed that the SCD project was conceived about two years ago as a response to the high burden of SCD in the region. 

“Studies in Western part of Kenya (predominantly inhabited by the Luo and Luhya ethnic communities) have demonstrated high birth prevalence of SCD at 3.2-4.5 per cent,” said Dr Ganda. 

A majority of children with SCD die undiagnosed with 50-90 per cent dying before their 5th birthday. Approximately 80 per cent of individuals with SCD are below 15 years of age.
 
In the Western part of the country, about 4.5 per cent of children are born with SCD, and 18 per cent of children are born with sickle cell trait(SCT).  

A person with sickle cell disease (SCD) has two copies of the gene, one from each parent. A person with SCT has only one copy of the gene, they will never develop sickle cell disease. 

Instead, they’re considered a carrier for the disease.That means they can pass the gene for the disease on to their children.

Analysis of data available at JOOTRH reveals that on average a sickle cell client suffers 5 episodes of crises annually and 5-10 days of hospitalisation per episode.
 
Dr Ganda said that economically, Sickle Cell Disease contributes to high productivity losses and exposes families to great financial risks.
 
The centre is also expected to offer therapeutic apheresis in which defective red blood cells are removed and replaced with normal ones using a special apheresis machine.
 
“Ultimately, the centre will be equipped and capacitated to offer Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) services which will be useful for most hemato-oncological conditions,” said Dr Ganda.
 
He said stigma and discrimination of patients with Sickle Cell Disease is still a major challenge. Likewise, the access of essential drugs used in treating the disease among children is another setback.

“Hydroxyurea is an essential drug for SCD, but is currently only available as 500mg capsules, which is not feasible for use in children below 5 years,” said Dr Ganda.

The Sickle Cell project is an ambitious project being implemented alongside Kisumu Comprehensive Cancer & Haematology Centre (KCCHC) by the County Government of Kisumu.
 
The integrative approach emanates from the fact that sickle cell disease (SCD) and cancer interventions share some aspects of technologies, expertise and equipment in the areas of diagnosis, service delivery, training and research.