Breakthrough sickle cell gene therapy a distant hope in Africa

NEWS ANALYSIS | JOHN MUSENZE | As Uganda rolls out mandatory nationwide screening of newborns for sickle cell disease this month, a gene therapy celebrated in the United States and Europe remains financially out of reach for most patients in Africa.

Ayoola Olajide, president of Ikorodu Sickle Cell Club in Nigeria and a person living with sickle cell disease, told SciDev.Net: “For Africa, gene therapy treatment currently exists only on paper.”

According to the World Health Organization, about 515,000 babies are born each year with sickle cell disease, a lifelong, inherited blood disorder. Around 80 per cent of cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is a leading cause of deaths among young children.