Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Monday during a stakeholders’ meeting on health, research, education and advocacy on sickle cell in Tanzania for the past 10 years, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elders and Children, Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, said:
“The government is working hard with specialists to make sure that we are saving the lives of children.”
He said statistics showed that Tanzania ranked among top four countries in the world with the highest annual births of SCD individuals. They were estimated to be between 8,000 and 11,000 births a year, according to him. Within Tanzania, the regions most affected are on the eastern coast, southern and lake regions of Tanzania.
Without treatment, between 50-90 per cent of children will die in childhood before 14 years. However, cost-effective interventions have the potential to reduce mortality by up to 70 per cent in childhood.
Speaking on the same occasion, Prof Julie Makani, the vice chairperson of the Sickle Cell of Tanzania who is also the senior lecturer at the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University said since 2004, over 4,000 SCD patients have been screened at the facility.
He added that as part of the Muhimbili Haematology Programme, prospective surveillance has provided descriptions of the clinical spectrum of SCD, defining the major causes of morbidity and mortality.
She said with global partnerships, Muhimbili the main clinical, academic and research centre in Tanzania, has developed a systematic framework for comprehensive research that is integrated into healthcare provision with the development of evidence-based policies to improve practice and the health of affected individuals.
The Muhimbili Haematology Programme is within the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, School of Medicine, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). Education and training is conducted predominantly through MUHAS.
Prof Makani who is the principal investigator for the Sickle Cell Programme added that healthcare for sickle cell disease has been provided at Muhimbili National Hospital, within the Departments of Internal Medicine (Clinical Haematology Unit), Paediatrics and Child Health as well as laboratory services (Haematology Unit).
With the introduction of newborn screening, the department of Obstetrics and Child Health is involved. Major funding for newborn screening has been received from Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF), UKAID.
“We are working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Muhimbili Hospital and all regional hospitals to make sure that we provide better services for SCD everywhere in the country,” she said.
She further added that Tanzania has recognised sickle cell disease as a major public health problem that has been neglected and has included it as a priority condition in the national strategy for Non-Communicable Diseases.
“In order to develop a platform for advocacy, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania was launched in 2010. Tanzania aims to achieve significant advances in improving health and increasing knowledge through biomedical science within SCD,” she concluded.
For her part, Hadija Abdallah who is a victim of SCD said she was diagnosed when she was one and a half year, adding that she has been attending clinic sessions due to awareness from her parents and she is happy, beautiful and strong.
Hadija said: “The problem lies in lack of awareness to among societies since the majorities still believe that the disease is based on witchcraft due to longterm illness and patients’ loss of energy,”
Hadija is now 20 years old and healthy. She encourages all the victims of SCD to make sure they follow all the health instructions for medication and clinic to save their lives.
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