A center of excellence for sickle cell disease will soon be opened at the Yopougon Millionnaire Extension health center, announced Novartis Medical Affairs Director in charge of sickle cell disease, Dr. Kwaku Marfo, at the deferred World Sickle Cell Day celebration ceremony held on Tuesday June 25, 2024, at the headquarters of the Centre Suisse de Recherches ScientifiquesS (CSRS) in Adiopodoumé.

This center, dedicated to the fight against sickle cell disease, will enable better management of this pathology and the promotion of clinical research. Now nearing completion, it will be fully equipped to manage the disease from start to finish, from research to treatment and therapy. The initiative is made possible by a collaboration between Novartis and the CSRS.

"Once this center is inaugurated, it will be one of the only centers in Côte d'Ivoire to offer a 360-degree management process for sickle cell disease (...) And the idea is to diagnose as many people as possible as early as possible, before the morbidity case becomes proven," said Dr Kwaku Marfo.

The Managing Director of Novartis for French-speaking West and Central Africa, Ms Karamoko Coulibaly Manon, expressed the commitment of her pharmaceutical company to take charge of the training of healthcare personnel, in particular general practitioners and nurses, for better management of sickle cell patients.

She also mentioned the importance of making parents aware of the collateral effects of this disease, and of guaranteeing access to medication and healthcare.

The dispensary where the center of excellence will be built is on a 2,000 m² plot of land, and financed by the department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt to the tune of 347 million FCFA. It is the fruit of a twinning arrangement between the Canton of Basel-Stadt and the commune of Yopougon.

WHO estimates that 5% of the world's population carries the sickle cell gene, and that over 500,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease every year, 60-80% of whom die before the age of five. In Côte d'Ivoire, between 6,000 and 8,000 babies are born with the disease every year, requiring special care.

Since 2006, the WHO has been recommending systematic neonatal screening, the creation of specialized centers and the implementation of national programs for the early management of sickle cell disease.

(AIP)

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