With approximately 18,000 babies born with sickle cell disease (SCD) annually out of an estimated 896,000 births, Ghana has announced plans to screen every newborn baby for the condition.
This initiative is part of a national strategy to prevent or control SCD, which affects thousands of Ghanaians each year.
Current statistics show that only 5.5 per cent of children are screened for SCD in the newborn period, with most cases diagnosed during emergency department visits.
The plan was revealed here on Monday by Professor Alex Osei-Akoto, Principal Investigator of the Patient-Centred Sickle Cell Disease Management in sub-Saharan Africa (PACTS) project, at a media training workshop on SCD held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
