By Samira Larbie
Accra, Sept. 24, GNA-The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in collaboration with Revvity, a scientific solutions company powering innovation from discovery to cure, have trained seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa to efficiently screen newborns for sickle cell disease.
The countries, which included Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia formed the Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa (CONSA).
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. It is a common condition within sub-Saharan Africa and is associated with high under-f mortality (U5M).
The two-day training sponsored by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) the initiators of the CONSA was to help train champions from the respective countries to use the knowledge acquired to implement standardized newborn hemoglobinopathy screening and early intervention for children with SCD in sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Micheal Fokuo Ofori, Head of, Department of Immunology NMIMR, representing the Director, said the training in partnership with the Ghana Sickle Cell Foundation came at an opportune time as SCD was a major problem in Africa.
He said many people think being diagnosed with sickle cells marks the end of a child, but this is not true because studies have shown that such children would be able to survive with early detection.
Prof Ofori said with the equipment needed available to Noguchi, they would be able to expand the training to enable them to screen more newborns across the country.
He urged people who were planning to marry to go for medical checks to know their sickle cell traits to avoid giving birth to such children as the disease could affect any part of the body.
The training comes after Revvity formerly known as PerkinElmer donated MigeleTM Gel Electrophoresis Systems to Noguchi to support Ghana’s need for reliable, fast, and cost-efficient SCD screening.
Ms Marika Kase, the Director of Strategic Initiatives, Reproductive Health Diagnostics Revvity, explaining how the MigeleTM Gel systems operate affirmed their continued support to Ghana to ensure children with sickle cell were screened.
She called on the Government to incorporate newborn sickle cell screening into the national health strategy to solve the disease problem in Ghana.
Ms Kase said this was not going to be easy but encouraged the Ghana Health Service to ensure that the country screens 50 per cent of babies by 2030 to enable them to live longer.
Dr Russel Ware, a Pediatric Hematologist United States, said the training was to make participants champions in their respective countries so that they have all the knowledge, skills, and understanding of the Migel technology to share in their local settings.
He said newborn screening for sickle had been in the United States for 50 years and took a long time to get it right, hence the training to share some of the lessons learnt.
GNA