• One get fever and fatigue, experiences episodes of pain, swelling of hands and feet
• Other symptoms: abdominal swelling, pale skin and delayed growth, vision problems
Image: PILI CHIMERAH
Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disease that arises when there are not enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen all through the body.
The red blood cells in sickle cell patients appear in the form of a sickle shape and may sometimes get stuck in blood vessels, which prevent free flow of oxygen all through the body.
A sickle cell patient usually exhibits signs of fever and fatigue, experiences episodes of pain, swelling of hands and feet, abdominal swelling, pale skin and delayed growth, and may also experience vision problems.
These symptoms may occur in early childhood, mostly at about five months.
At this time of Covid-19, patients with sickle cell anaemia are at higher risk of contracting the virus.
According to the Health ministry, the impaired immunity of sickle cell patients makes them susceptible to severe illnesses when they get infected with the virus.
Health CAS Rashid Aman, during the World Sickle Cell Day celebrated on June 19, said guidelines for managing the disease have been set by the government and stakeholders, and they are expected to be rolled out soon.
With five years' experience dealing with sickle cell patients, clinician Maureen Maoni urges the government to do more to ensure they are catered for.
Many relate it to superstitions, while some do not yet know of its existence, she said.
“The government needs to do a lot of education with the community, and it cannot succeed alone if they will not involve religious and community leaders,” the expert said.
Maoni urges couples to go for genetic counselling before they decide to get married.
“If people will not go for it, then we are going to still face a high number of children being born with sickle cell disease,” Maoni said.
Blood transfusions being common among sickle cell patients, Maoni said the transfusion is not 100 per cent effective, but it is reliable since the blood to be transfused is usually screened thoroughly.
Sickle cell patients who take care of their health by putting into consideration medication and proper diet do not require a lot of blood transfusion.
“There are patients who take their drugs very well and they have good nutrition, so they require less transfusions compared to people of lower social-economic status, who do not feed well and have recurrent malaria attacks,” she said.
Having proper nutrition, less malaria attacks and less infection, then the patient will not need a lot of blood transfusion.
“In cases of severe malaria, then the patient needs to be transfused,” Maoni said.
Covid-19 has, however, been problematic to sickle cell patients as accessing drugs has been quite difficult.
Restrictions to hospitals has made it hard for sickle cell patients to go for their clinical checkups and also get drugs.
Those from low socoeconomic areas also struggle to afford medicine, and this includes the hydroxyurea drug, which is deemed very effective.
Stressful situations are also making patients also have frequent crises.
“There are a lot of sickle cell crises during this time because the patients are not settled psychologically and whenever they are faced by stress, they get a crisis,” Maoni said.
The environment can also be problematic to such patients. For example, patients living close to lakes and swampy areas tend to be at a higher risk of being affected more. This is because they are susceptible to malaria infections.
“If you are a sickle cell patient and you get malaria we do not take it lightly, that is a very serious thing,” Maoni said.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, sickle cell disease occurs more often among people from parts of the world where malaria is or was common.
It is also possible that people who carry the sickle cell trait are less likely to have severe forms of malaria.