Dar es Salaam, Feb. 24 -- TANZANIA: SICKLE Cell Disease (SCD) remains a significant health burden, particularly in Africa where approximately 80 per cent of the 515,000 global births are affected by SCD annually.

In many high-income countries, advanced therapies such as exchange blood transfusion (ExBT) and haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) are routine, leading to better outcomes for patients. However, in many parts of Africa, such treatments remain scarce.

In developed countries, surveillance systems have been put in place to identify children born with SCD through newborn screening programmes which enables their prompt enrolment into comprehensive care programmes.

To help address the burden, Tanzania has established one of t...