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Sickle cell disease still deadly despite advances in medicine
A displaced woman and her sick child sleep at a health clinic run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Chad. Some 200,000 babies are born every year in sub-Saharan Africa with sickle cell disease. Photo/REUTERS
A century after the drawing of an anaemic patient’s sickle-shaped red blood cells came out of Chicago in the USA —a sketch that officially placed this still pervasive genetic disorder into medical books — confusion, discrimination and lack of treatment continue to surround sickle cell disease (SCD), especially in Africa where more than 200,000 babies are born every year with the disease.
“Sickle cell is a true public health problem with medical, human and social dimensions,” Oumar Ibrahima Touré, Mali’s health minister until earlier this month, told IRIN.
