SummaryBackgroundIn sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90% of children with sickle-cell anaemia die before the diagnosis can be made. The causes of death are poorly documented, but bacterial sepsis is probably important. We examined the risk of invasive bacterial diseases in children with sickle-cell anaemia.MethodsThis study was undertaken in a rural area on the coast of Kenya, with a case–control approach. We undertook blood cultures on all children younger than 14 years who were admitted from within a defined study area to Kilifi District Hospital between Aug 1, 1998, and March 31, 2008; those with bacteraemia were defined as cases. We used two sets of controls: children recruited by random sampling in the same area into several studies undertaken between Sept 1, 1998, and Nov 30, 2005; and those born consecutively within the area between May 1, 2006, and April 30, 2008. Cases and controls were tested for sickle-cell anaemia retrospectively.FindingsWe detected 2157 episodes of bacteraemia in 38 441 admissions (6%). 1749 of these children with bacteraemia (81%) were typed for sickle-cell anaemia, of whom 108 (6%) were positive as were 89 of 13 492 controls (1%). The organisms most commonly isolated from children with sickle-cell anaemia were Streptococcus pneumoniae (44/108 isolates; 41%), non-typhi Salmonella species (19/108; 18%), Haemophilus influenzae type b (13/108; 12%), Acinetobacter species (seven of 108; 7%), and Escherichia coli (seven of 108; 7%). The age-adjusted odds ratio for bacteraemia in children with sickle-cell anaemia was 26·3 (95% CI 14·5–47·6), with the strongest associations for S pneumoniae (33·0, 17·4–62·8), non-typhi Salmonella species (35·5, 16·4–76·8), and H influenzae type b (28·1, 12·0–65·9).InterpretationThe organisms causing bacteraemia in African children with sickle-cell anaemia are the same as those in developed countries. Introduction of conjugate vaccines against S pneumoniae and H influenzae into the childhood immunisation schedules of African countries could substantially affect survival of children with sickle-cell anaemia.FundingWellcome Trust, UK.

Although malaria is widely considered a major cause of death in young children born with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in sub-Saharan Africa, this is poorly quantified. We attempted to investigate this question through 4 large case-control analyses involving 7164 children living on the coast of Kenya. SCA was associated with an increased risk of admission to hospital both with nonmalaria diseases in general (odds ratio [OR] ‫؍‬ 4.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.95-8.92; P < .001) and with invasive bacterial diseases in particular (OR ‫؍‬ 8.73; 95% CI, 4.51-16.89; P < .001). We found no evidence for a strongly increased risk of either uncomplicated malaria (OR ‫؍‬ 0.43; 95% CI, 0.09-2.10; P ‫؍‬ .30) or malaria complicated by a range of well-described clinical features of severity (OR ‫؍‬ 0.80; 95% CI, 0.25-2.51; P ‫؍‬ .70) overall; nevertheless, mortality was considerably higher among SCA than non-SCA children hospitalized with malaria. Our findings highlight both the central role that malaria plays in the high early mortality seen in African children with SCA and the urgent need for better quantitative data. Meanwhile, our study confirms the importance of providing all children living with SCA in malaria-endemic areas with effective prophylaxis. (Blood. 2010;116(10):1663-1668) IntroductionThe common causes of morbidity and mortality in children living with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in developed countries have been well documented through projects, such as the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease in the United States and the Jamaican Cohort study. Nevertheless, surprisingly little research has been conducted in Africa, 1-3 where more than 230 000 children with SCA, approximately 80% of the global burden, are born every year. 4 Although malaria is widely considered a major cause of death in African children with SCA, 1,5-7 this assumption is supported by surprisingly few data. Most reports have involved small, hospital-based studies and have lacked control data that enable comparisons of risk to be made with non-SCA subjects. 1 Perhaps the strongest evidence comes from the Garki project, conducted in northern Nigeria during the 1970s, which reported a nonsignificant trend toward higher survival of children with SCA in an area exposed to intensive malaria control. 8 However, studies suggesting that malaria is an important cause of death in children with SCA are balanced by others that show the opposite: children with SCA might even be less susceptible to malaria than those without the disease. 6,[9][10][11][12][13] Determining the true risk of death from malaria in subjects with SCA is important for several reasons. From a policy perspective, documenting an association between SCA and malaria death would provide strong justification for early-life SCA screening and the targeted prescription of effective malaria prophylaxis. Conversely, if the risk of malaria-specific death was not elevated, alternative approaches to prophylaxis and treatment might be considered. Recently, we reported that malaria was a rare cause...