Improving the lives of people with sickle cell Airtel Tigo/ Nice Assor 
Every year, approximately 15,000 babies in Ghana are born with sickle cell disease. Early diagnosis through newborn screening and available treatment could significantly reduce preventable deaths. 
At the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana, a medical team reviews the records of a patient with sickle cell disease, or SCD.
The hospital’s Pediatric Sickle Cell Clinic currently provides care to about 1,000 children. For those living with SCD, recurring pain episodes — caused by the clogging of blood vessels by misshapen red blood cells — require frequent hospital visits and treatment.
Among the team is the President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana and Program Coordinator for the National Newborn Screening Program for Sickle Cell Disease Nice Asor
Known to his peers as “Kof,” he has dedicated his medical career to improving the lives of people with SCD. In many countries across Africa, a lot of children with SCD die undiagnosed and never treated for the disease, which is why it is so important to diagnose the disease before symptoms begin, Ohene-Frempong said.
The foundation is one stakeholder behind a new partnership aimed at preventing SCD child deaths in Ghana through the expansion of universal newborn screening and improved treatment.
Ohene-Frempong hopes the partnership will “bring awareness to sickle cell disease, especially in Africa where it’s most prevalent and where governments have ignored the disease for a long time, while many people see that it is worth fighting for.”
Story by Fada Amakye from Daily Sun.
