The county government of Kisumu has announced plans to set establish a comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Center to respond to the high burden of the condition in the region.
County Chief Officer for Health and Sanitation Dr. Gregory Ganda confirmed the report and said the County the County has partnered with the American Society of Hematology (ASH), Perkin Elmer-Finland, Novartis Pharma, and several other African Countries with interests in SCD to actualize the project.
The world class center will be developed at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH). The SCD initiative will be the first of its kind in the country and is poised to serve patients suffering from sickle cell anemia and other blood disorders from Kenya and greater lake region.
Reduction of cancer incidences
The noble project is being implemented alongside the comprehensive Cancer and hematology Centre that is still under construction by the county. The two ground-breaking projects have been integrated because SCD and cancer are both of major public health concern in Nyanza region.
Upon completion, the center will offer a daily sickle cell clinic and is expected to provide therapeutic apheresis in which defective red blood cells are removed and replaced with normal ones through a special machine. It will be equipped and capacitated to offer bone marrow transplant services, which will be useful for most haemato-oncological conditions.
The center will also help in the reduction of cancer incidences and deaths through access to population based primary prevention, early detection, quality diagnostics, treatment and palliative care. In Kenya, around 1000 people are born with the condition annually. Most children with SCD die undiagnosed with 50-90% dying before their 5th birthday.
Most common inherited diseases worldwide
Approximately 80% of those with the disease are below 15 years of age. About 17-21% of children out of 100 in Kisumu County are born carrying sickle cell strains. There is a Sickle Cell anemia clinic at JOOTRH which helps in handling the high number of cases of the disease being reported in the area.
SCD is among the most common inherited diseases worldwide that affects the red blood cells in people’s bodies. The condition usually presents in childhood and is characterized by abnormal, rigid, sickle-shaped red blood cells and is exacerbated by low oxygen levels, dehydration and concurrent illness.
Currently, the only available cure for sickle cell disease is bone marrow transplant. The best transplant outcomes are when the donor is a healthy sibling with compatible stem cells. The stem cells replace the sickle blood stem cells and restore normal blood production in children with sickle cell condition.
“This will be the first facility to offer stem cells transplant in the region. We aspire to become a world-class Sickle Cell Disease Management Centre where clients thrive free of fear and full of hope to overcome the pain and suffering associated with sickle cell disease,” said Dr. Ganda.
The county has also initiated negotiations with National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to offer SCD patients comprehensive health insurance schemes, as the treatment costs can be catastrophic to the struggling families.
