Sickle cell
By Mustapha Yauri
Abuja, July 24, 2018 (NAN) The Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Michael Adikwu has appealed to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), to devote more funds to the eradication of sickle cell disease in the country.
Adikwu made the appeal at a workshop organised by the University of Abuja Centre Of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training in collaboration with the Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria and Imperial College, London.
Represented by Dr Amos Gadzama, Provost College of Health Sciences, the vice chancellor expressed concerned with hitches experienced in efforts to stem the disease in Nigeria.
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My thinking is that the primary health care fund which the national
assembly is trying to bring up in the next budget would be used for proper
prevention of this disease, so that we’ll be able to, in the near future, eradicate the
disease that we can be able to prevent, and move on with other
diseases that are unpreventable like cancers and things like that.
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He said the university was interested in the eradication of the disease adding that some researchers on the disease had received a nod for EU grants.
He said the university in collaboration with researchers was working hard to ensure that the grant when received would scale up research in sickle cell.
According to him, lecturers from pharmacy department of the university in collaboration with the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID) had developed a drug used in the treatment of
sickle cell disease.
The Vice Chancellor noted that about 75 per cent of the global burden of sickle cell disease was within the African region even though it was preventable and treatable.
He therefore urged participants at the workshop to do more on prevention of the disease.
In her remarks, Prof. Obiageli Nnodu, Director, Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease
Research and Training, said the workshop was a plan for a pilot study on the disease.
She said the study was aimed at collecting data on the morbidity and survival of children and adults with sickle cell disease in Nigeria, which she said was essential for the calculation if national and global burden estimates.
Nnodu said her organisation received a pilot grant from imperial College, London, to work on protocol affecting survival of sickle cell disease in Nigeria.
She noted that researchers from 20 institutions across the country had been involved in the study of sickle cell disease.
She said the research on the sickle cell was important as it affects a lot people.
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“ We are working together to see what data we have currently; how we can get appropriate data because if you look at the demographics of sickle cell disease you’ll find that in infancy it was about two percent, but if you sample adults according to the national demographic survey, you’ll find that about 0.05 per cent of adults have sickle cell disease.
“So what has happened to the people, who were identified or who were seen at
birth; what has happened between birth and when they were adult?
“So we want look at some complications and see the data; how we can collect this data in a standardized manner so that we can plan and advise government on how to plan effective interventions for the
disease.’’
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AM/LAB/YEE
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Edited by Lydia Beshel/Emmanuel Yashim