Written By |||Vanessa Kariuiki
Every year on June 19, sickle cell disease (SCD) is brought to the public’s attention in an effort to increase awareness of the disease’s effects on individuals, families, and communities all over the world.
The focus of World Sickle Cell Awareness Day 2023 is “Formalising New-born Screening, Building and Strengthening Global Sickle Cell Communities, and Knowing Your Sickle Cell Disease Status.”
The Global Alliance of Sickle Cell Disease Organisations (GASCDO)’s theme exhorts the use of cutting-edge technologies in this modern age to determine the state of sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood ailment in which the aberrant red blood cells develop a crescent or sickle form. These abnormally shaped cells clog blood vessels, leading to a variety of health issues.
The purpose of international sickle cell awareness day is to increase public awareness of the difficulties that sickle cell disease patients confront and the efforts that may be made to make the disease’s diagnosis and treatment more widely available.
The Ministry of Health together with stakeholders have launched guidelines for managing sickle cell disease. This will improve quality of care offered at our health facility and community levels.
MOH says a person with SCD can live a long and active life as long as they undergo regular check-ups with a doctor, take their medications regularly, prevent infections through hygienic practices such as hand washing and drink lots of water.
The Ministry is also planning to launch guidelines for infant screening of sickle cell disease.
According to MOH at least 14,000 children in Kenya are born each year with Sickle Cell Disease.
In the absence of new-born screening and appropriate treatment, majority of these children die undiagnosed in early childhood from preventable causes such as malaria and bacterial infections.
The disease is common across Kenya with high disease burden pockets 17 counties in the Western and Coastal regions and Nairobi.
Spreading knowledge about sickle cell illness among your friends, family, and community is the greatest way to mark World Sickle Cell Awareness Day, aid in the education of others.
World Sickle Cell Awareness Day is more than just a day to raise awareness of this illness, its signs, symptoms, therapies, and other pertinent information, it is an initiative that pulls people together to help those in need.
