Ojuroungbe Sodiq
The Lagos University Teaching Hospital in collaboration with Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria has launched a bone marrow transplant programme for people with sickle cell disease.
Bone marrow transplant, an established cure for sickle cell disease, has been prohibitively expensive and inaccessible to most Nigerians.
It is the country’s first locally available bone marrow transplant programme for treating sickle cell disease.
The LUTH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Wasiu Adeyemo, and the National Director/CEO of SCFN, Annette Akinsete in a statement made available to PUNCH Healthwise, said the joint effort seeks to provide affordable, high-quality treatment locally.
It added that the teaching hospital and SCFN decided to introduce the initiative after identifying existing gaps in the treatment of sickle cell disease patients in the country.
The statement stressed that the new programme would allow people with SCD to locally access a bone marrow transplant via a procedure that involves replacing the patient’s diseased stem cells with healthy ones from a matched family donor.
Nigeria bears the largest burden of sickle cell disease worldwide, with affected individuals facing life-threatening complications, organ damage, and reduced life expectancy.
The World Health Organisation estimated that 24 per cent of the Nigerian population are carriers of the mutant genes for this disease.
WHO stated that the prevalence of sickle-cell disease in Nigeria is about 20 per 1,000 births.
The global health body noted that Nigeria occupies a strategic position in the epidemiology of SCD globally.
LUTH and SCFN in the statement said the first set of sickle cell patients admitted for the programme in August were undergoing bone marrow transplants at the hospital.
The statement reads in part, “They received a treatment regimen of exchange blood transfusions, chemotherapy, and anti-infective prophylaxis to prepare them for the infusion of bone marrow stem cells that were harvested from family donors, processed and given this week (17 and 19 September).
“Both patients are currently undergoing immediate post-transplant care within the transplant unit at Lagos University Teaching Hospital”.
While the process comes with risks such as infection and infertility, increased research advancements over the past 20 years have greatly improved outcomes.
LUTH, in the statement, affirmed that the newly established bone marrow transplant programme in Nigeria meets up with international standards for the cure of sickle cell disease.
The transplant programme, led by Dr. Seye Akinsete and Professor Edamisan Temiye, has a multidisciplinary team of experts.
International partners, including Professor Adetola Kassim of Vanderbilt University Medical Centre and Professor Josu de la Fuente of Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust UK, have provided invaluable guidance.
LUTH’s Chief Medical Director, and SCFN’s National Director, expressed gratitude to patients, families, hospital management, Lagos State Government, and federal health authorities for their support.
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