The world has celebrated the Sickle Cell Day in a bid to bring public awareness on the disease and ensure people take precautions against it.
Tanzania was named as the fourth country (worldwide) for having many sickle cell patients after Nigeria, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the highest number of sickle cell disease cases per year (of up to 11,000).
According to the sickle cell clinical coordinator at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dr Deogratius Soka, apart from the increasing number of patients, there is little awareness being created on the problem.
“We started with 800 patients back in 2004, but currently we have about 4,000 of them who attend our clinic. This has brought more challenges in terms of finance, human resources and space,” said Dr Soka.
NMG
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