Every June 19 is celebrated as World Sickle Cell Day, a genetic disease that affects more than 50 million people worldwide. Togo is not spared. Given the seriousness of the manifestations of this pathology, Dr Hèzouwè Magnang, Director of the National Center for Research and Care of Sickle Cell Disease (CNRSD) reminds the population.
According to the doctor, sickle cell disease is a disease that can be avoided if you know your hemoglobin type before choosing your partner. ” It is necessary to make the choice to make the electrophoresis of the hemoglobin which is the examination often carried out to know its type of hemoglobin. After this test, one chooses one’s spouse accordingly. It’s the only way to avoid having children with sickle cell disease “, recalled Dr. Hèzouwè Magnang at the microphone of our radio colleagues Nana Fm.
Furthermore, the Director of the National Center for Research and Care for Sickle Cell Disease informs that sickle cell disease is no longer a fatality today. ” When we have made an early diagnosis and we are regularly followed by a doctor, we can have a normal life, a healthy life. Today, the State has set up the National Center for Sickle Cell Research and Care (CNRSD) which is the place par excellence where sickle cell sufferers can come and receive all the information concerning their disease and also receive care when they needs it and which will allow him to live better with his pathology “, he said. He adds : ” The general practitioner can also organize the medical follow-up of sickle cell patients ».
In Togo, based on hospital data, about 4% of the population lives with the severe form of sickle cell disease, “ that is to say the forms where the person will present the clinical signs of the disease and the main sign of sickle cell disease is bone pain in adults. You can have this pain in children too, but it’s much more abdominal pain that you find in them. “, explains Dr. Hèzouwè Magnang. While 7% of the population carries the gene for the disease so can transmit the disease to their offspring.
Children are asymptomatic at birth but the first complications occur from 3 months: painful vaso-occlusive crises, acute thoracic syndromes, haemolysis, acute anemia… It is also the first cause of cerebral vascular accident in children. In fact, without early treatment, the infant mortality rate in children with sickle cell disease increases.
Atha ASSAN