HOPE rises for sickle cell sufferers as Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria (SCFN), in conjunction with Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), has offered a bone marrow transplant, a safe cure for sickle cell disease, to two patients under its transplant programme.
A release jointly signed by LUTH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Wasiu Adeyemo, and SCFN’s National Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Annette Akinsete, said this first set of patients admitted in the last week of August 2024 are currently undergoing immediate post-transplant care within the hospital.
They said that a bone marrow transplant programme was established to ensure that Nigerians can access a high-quality, safe bone marrow transplant that meets international standards for the cure of sickle cell disease.
According to the release, “the establishment of comprehensive care programmes, including newborn screening, penicillin prophylaxis, and transcranial Doppler screening in children, is to identify those at risk of stroke.
“This is followed by using chronic blood transfusion therapy and the increasing use of hydroxyurea therapy, which has improved the proportion of children surviving into adulthood but has not improved the proportion of adults living to older age, especially for the most severely affected.
“But bone marrow transplant using a donor from a family member is an established cure for this disease, first used more than 30 years ago.”
They declared that bone marrow transplant, now an approved therapy for children and adults with severe sickle cell disease, is a complex procedure requiring a multidisciplinary team approach and involves treatment and close follow-up for approximately 12 months.
According to them, the complexity and costs have severely limited those who can obtain this treatment, and most have sought this treatment outside Nigeria, which causes severe hardship for patients and families, only to come home with no local expertise for follow-up.
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