Sickle Cell: A major contributor to maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone

KMN – Freetown (June 28) The Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is causing devastation in Sierra Leone amidst little attention to the genetic condition from the public health system, patients and a campaign group say.

SCD, also known as Sickle Cell Anaemia, is a condition caused by the abnormal growth of the red blood cell, leading to suffering among patients. The condition is hereditary, meaning it can transfer from parents to their offspring.

In Sierra Leone many sufferers dye in silent agony due to lack of proper care, say the Sickle Cell Society of Sierra Leone (SCS-SL), noting that it is also a leading driver of maternal and infant deaths in the country.

A normal red blood cell is round. An abnormal one is shaped like a crescent or sickle [the shape of the agricultural implement]. Unlike the normal red blood cells, sickle shaped red blood cells do not live for long. And since these red blood cells are responsible for the transportation of oxygen through the body, sickle cell patients often lack enough blood due to the short-live span of their red blood cells. This condition is called anaemia.

In addition, because of their shape, sickle cells tend to get stuck in blood vessels, blocking blood flow. This can cause pain and organ damage, as does constant deprivation of oxygen-rich blood. This organ damage is what makes sickle cell a fatal condition.

A chat with the National Blood Bank at Connaught

 

KMNA – Freetown (June 23) On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day commemorated on June 14, KMN talked to Saio Y. Koroma, Medical Laboratory Officer at the National Blood Bank at Connaught Hospital in Freetown.

We started by asking Mr Koroma to give us an overview of the state of the blood bank.

Koroma: The government and its partners have tried hard to set the stage for people to donate blood from time to time, but it’s unfortunate that the public is not responding positively.

One thing we need to know is that up until now we have not been able to get a substitute for blood, despite the intervention of scientists… In medical delivery, they have been able to make a lot of commodities with which lives of patients are saved. For example, we have tablets, capsules and injections at our disposal to alleviate pain.

But when someone is short of blood, they have not been able to produce something to sell. And we are not able to get people to come and donate.

KMN: When you say the public is not responding, how do you mean?

Koroma: It is not that people are not coming at all. We have three types of blood donations.

Firstly, there are the family or friend replacement donors. This category donates when family members or friends are sick and in need of blood.