Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a severe blood disorder affecting millions of adults and children around the world. Nigeria has the highest number of cases (and the most severe forms) in the world), with approximately three million patients, which constitutes about 20% of the world’s SCD population.
Here are some more sobering numbers:
- Over 80% of children born each year with sickle cell anemia are born in Africa.
- Between 150,000-200,000 are born every year with SCD (the US has fewer than 100,000)
- 50-70% of children born with SCD will not reach their fifth birthday
- Greater than 10% will suffer a stroke in their lifetime (peak incidence between 2 and 16 years)
- Most sufferers will be dead before their 30th birthday
GAPS IN SCD MANAGEMENT
Gaps in SCD management stems predominantly from a gap in healthcare provision and capacity (captured under the Four E’s):
- Expertise – haematologists (experts who treat blood disorders like sickle cell disease) and paediatricians are in short supply.
- Equipment – The ability to carry out tests on newly born kids or babies to ascertain the genotype. Most remote communities do not have labs that are equipped for this. In addition, many genotype results appear to be inaccurate, leading to “false negatives.”
- Establishment: Hospitals and other healthcare facilities, support centres are absent or lacking in most remote areas
- Economy – the cost of setting up all the above from a corporate perspective, and access to the above (from an individual perspective)
There is also a dearth of research and research facilities in Nigeria, which has prevented us from developing a home-grown solution to effectively address the need of Nigeria’s sickle cell disease population.
OUR APPROACH
We are focused on developing and providing safe innovative solutions/interventions to the health challenges facing medically fragile children and sharing the knowledge gained with healthcare professionals and the general public.
Our founder and Executive Director, Dr. David Dayo Ajibade has had over ten years’ experience working with brain disorders and, and more recently, over four years working with sickle cell disease, with so much information shared over the years.
Our goal is to help children living with sickle cell disease enjoy a quality of life that would be considered normal (or remarkably close to it) and in doing so, prevent the incessant crises and illnesses many of them experience. By focusing on strengthening the areas of weakness known to be present in SCD kids, we have proven over the last four years that this goal is achievable.
We have found that by using targeted nutrients, we can drastically reduce the frequency and severity of symptoms in patients with SCD. We have seen on a consistent basis an average of 80% reduction in symptoms and improvement in the quality of life among our patients.