High rate of sickle cell anaemia in Sub‐Saharan Africa underlines the need to screen all children with severe anaemia for the disease

Abstract

The high prevalence of sickle cell anaemia in children in Sub-Saharan Africa underlines the need for neonatal screening or, if that is not possible, screening of all children with severe anaemia to identify patients with the disease and provide early management.

Validity of simple clinical and biological parameters as screening tool for sickle cell anemia for referral to tertiary center in highly resource constraints

“…Previous studies showed that the proportion of sickle cell anemia in the group with negative thick blood smear was significantly higher than that observed in anemic with positive thick smear . These results were confirmed and extended by the findings of a recent study in our midst . Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain this phenomenon such as the invasion of red cells by Plasmodium causes sickling and the destruction of red blood cells by the spleen, impaired parasite egress from dehydrated erythrocytes, the difficulty for the Plasmodium to develop properly under reduced O 2 tension in a sickle red cell, and inhibition of parasite replication by human erythrocyte miRNAs .…”

“…The incidence of SCA is estimated around 40 000 neonates per year . Without access to early diagnosis and adequate management including prevention of infection through the penicillin prophylaxis, pneumococcal vaccination, and health education, from 50% to 90% of these unknown SCD neonates die by the age of 5 years from several complications . An increase in access to early diagnosis is critical for improving these children's survival and quality of life …”

“…We have been interested in the use of clinical and laboratory parameters as markers for sickle cell diagnosis and early management of patients, especially because of the general absence of neonatal screening for sickle cell disease in the health policy of the Democratic Republic of Congo . This feature is one of the innovative notions that we have proposed in our study.…”

“…1 Without access to early diagnosis and adequate management including prevention of infection through the penicillin prophylaxis, pneumococcal vaccination, and health education, from 50% to 90% of these unknown SCD neonates die by the age of 5 years from several complications. [2][3][4][5] An increase in access to early diagnosis is critical for improving these children's survival and quality of life. [6][7][8][9][10] In most resource-limited settings such as the DRC, SCD is conventionally diagnosed by hemoglobin electrophoresis.…”

A microfluidic approach for hemoglobin detection in whole blood

“…1,2 Low hemoglobin concentration is diagnosed as anemia, which is caused by more than seventeen different diseases, mainly iron deficiency, hemoglobinopathy, and malaria. [3][4][5][6] The World Health Organization recognizes anemia as a global health problem, affecting a quarter of global population and having prevalence in young children and women. 1,2,[7][8][9] Thus, it is important to measure and monitor hemoglobin in these high-risk subpopulations.…”