WHO Africa unveils new tools to fight sickle cell disease

CONGO— The World Health Organization (WHO) in the African Region has released groundbreaking new guidance to help strengthen efforts to address the growing threat of sickle cell disease in the region.

This new WHO Africa guidance, encapsulated in two key documents entitled “Guidance Framework for Sickle Cell Disease Management” and “Harmonized Guide for Sickle Cell Disease Management in Africa,” provides countries with strategic directions for policy-making, comprehensive care plans, and advocacy efforts.

Together, these documents form the WHO SICKLE Package of Interventions for Sickle Cell Disease Management.

The SICKLE package aims to offer a holistic and integrated approach to managing sickle cell disease, ensuring access to necessary interventions, promoting education and advocacy, enhancing the quality of care, and empowering patients and communities.

Developed with financial support from the Government of Monaco and other partners, the package combines the latest research, best practices, and innovative approaches to sickle cell disease management, making it an essential tool for healthcare providers, policymakers, and advocates alike.

These guidelines are significant for their integrated and holistic approach.

The new technical documents offer detailed, actionable strategies and insights to support countries in improving the quality of care, making treatment more accessible, and boosting overall health outcomes.

Despite notable advances in sickle cell disease treatment globally—including newborn screening, hydroxyurea therapy, gene therapy, improved management strategies, and expanded immunization programs that have reduced mortality rates in higher-income countries—significant challenges remain in ensuring equitable access to these treatments in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the African region.

An estimated 240,000 children on the continent are born with sickle cell disease annually, up to 80% of whom will die from severe infections or acute chest syndrome before age five—the highest sickle cell disease-related childhood death rate worldwide.

WHO Africa has been at the forefront of the fight against sickle cell disease since 2010, focusing its efforts on scaling up disease interventions and access to innovative treatment technologies and medicines.

Progress to date includes the adoption by several countries of accurate and inexpensive point-of-care screening and the use of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound screening.

The availability of hydroxyurea, a medication that is extremely effective in preventing episodes of pain and consequently reducing visits to healthcare centers, in 11 countries is also significant.

Despite these advances, major challenges persist. These range from limited healthcare infrastructure, lack of awareness and education, inadequate access to comprehensive care, limited newborn screening, poor research and development, and restricted access to advanced treatments.

Commenting on the new guidelines, Dr. Benido Impouma, Director of the Universal Health Coverage/Communicable & Noncommunicable Diseases Programme at WHO Africa, expressed confidence that this guidance would serve as a valuable new addition to the toolkit for countries.

He emphasized that the guidance is tailored to the African reality, where a multi-faceted approach is key to addressing the complexities of sickle cell disease.

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