UCH raises hope for sickle cell victims

UCH raises hope for sickle cell victims

By Our Reporter  on October 29, 2015
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
THE University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, would soon begin a new method of bone marrow trans­plant to ensure complete cure for people suffering from sickle cell.
Consultant Hermatologist, Dr Titilola Akingbola, told reporters in Ibadan yesterday that studies have shown that victims account for two thirds of Nigerian population.
Her words: “It is a great burden on Nigerians and Africa. It is so sad that we have increasing long survival among patients who are most times surviving in pains. We have been using hydroxyures for them, but it needs close monitoring. This new method needs blood donors for them to survive and it will save their lives completely.
“It will be a red cell exchange which means the removal and re­placement of the red cells. After this, the patient will have total relief from the pains. They will only change the red cells coming from the bone mar­row,” she said.
Akingbola noted that UCH has brought in experts from the United States for training on how sickle cell diseases could be cured completely via bone marrow transplant.
In his remarks, Head of Herma­tologist at the University of Illiniois, Chicago in the United States, Prof Damiano Rondelli, noted that bone marrow transplant was discovered over 30 years ago as a cure for sickle cell.
The complications of the trans­plant, according to him, has scared many parents, patients and doctors from venturing into the bone marrow transplant.
He noted that the new method has nothing to do with surgery, saying: “we will only take the cells out of the bones of the donors and give them to the sickle cell patients without any side effects.
“The complications of the trans­plant have scared so many parents, patients and even doctors away, but this one is a combination of two drugs for the transplant and it involves less complications for the patients,” he said.
Rondelli assured that the new method would ensure that patients are 90 per cent sickle cell disease free, adding that “no disease is asso­ciated to the transplant.
“That is what distinguished it from the normal stem cell transplant. We believe UCH can become the centre for sickle cell treatment for Africa and that is why we need the help of everybody for sustenance of this new method to work, especially in finance and donation of the bone marrow.”
The Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof Temitope Alonge, who disclosed that the hospital has com­menced building of a Sickle Cell Centre, lamented that work has stopped on the building as a result of funds.
“We need the assistance of well-meaning Nigerians to complete this centre and also donors. When com­pleted, we wll give free treatment for the first five patients,” Alonge prom­ised.