Uganda gets the first specialised Sickle Cell Clinic in Kayunga

KAYUNGA, Uganda: Kayunga regional referral hospital has got a state of the art sickle cell clinic and training centre as a measure to scaleup lifesaving care for children with sickle cell disease (SCD) in Uganda.

Approximately 20,000 children with Sickle Cell Disease are born in Uganda each year

While laying the foundation stone at the construction site of the clinic in Kayunga on Monday, Dr. Diana Atwine said that “Our vision is to end the unconscious suffering and childhood deaths for children with SCD. Dr. Diana Atwine is the permanent secretary of the Uganda ministry of health.

Catherine Grimes, President of the Bristol Myers Squibb – (BMS) Foundation, an organization which is funding the construction project noted that “finding care is a significant challenge and sometimes not even possible” and reveals that the BMS partnership with the ministry of health in Uganda will integrate lifesaving early-stage interventions into primary care facilities in non urban areas by leveraging the infrastructure and local health care capacity already available.

The Hospital Director at kayunga regional Referral Hospital giving a guided tour around the hospital
The Hospital Director at Kayunga regional Referral Hospital giving a guided tour around the hospital . PHOTO/Stephen Okhutu

Andrew Muwonge, the district Local council chairperson commended the initiative and called upon the ministry to equip the regional referral hospital in Kayunga with a CT scan machine.

Sickle cell disease is a lifelong, inherited disorder affecting the red blood cells and according to the Ministry of Health, “it is a leading cause of childhood illness and death in Uganda”. The illness is characterized by lifelong anemia, bone crushing episodes that last for days or weeks, disability from brain strokes in childhood, and early childhood death from the infection.

Approximately 20,000 children with SCD are born in Uganda each year, according to a study made in 2016 published in the Lancet Global Health. In Uganda, over 90% of children living with SCD die in their first five years while SCD complications are now rating as the leading reasons for hospital admissions among children.

Blood stockout and malnutrition have been singled out as the cause of major deaths in SCD patients in Kayunga regional referral hospital with most cases registered from Luwero, Mukono, Kawolo and Nagalama.

Elizabeth Koshaba Nabuma

Lizzy as known at Scribe is professional passionate Journalist. Very jolly but serious when it comes to handling information. She can create change. She has created change. She will create change. Have we said all about her?