Professor Kwaku Ohene Frimpong, President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana, is hoping that the government will include sickle cell medication in the list of drugs captured under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), by the end of 2019.
This to him will help patients cover the cost of these drugs.
“We are working very hard to see whether we can get the national health insurance to actually cover this less expensive Hydroxyurea…We hope that with the support of the president, Parliament, and the insurance authority, we will be able to get that by the end of this year,” said Professor Frimpong.
Speaking at the Asamankese Government hospital to mark World sickle cell day today, Wednesday, the president of the Foundation expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that there is limited data on sickle patients making it difficult to monitor their survival rate in the country.
According to him, the limited data means there is no figure stating the exact number of sickle cell patients in Ghana.
Reports indicate that ninety percent of sickle cell patients in developing countries die before they turn 5 years old.
“We haven’t followed patients long enough to be able to see the rate at which they die with each passing age. If you have that kind of data even after 10 or 15 years of close follow up, you are able to make estimates as to what the survival rate is,” he said.
Sickle Disease
Sickle cell disease refers to a group of disorders that causes blood cells to become stiff and sickle-shaped limiting the amount of oxygen they are able to carry.
Sickle disease is contracted when a child receives sickle cell genes from each of their parents.
People with sickle cell disease are known to experience fatigue.
Sickle cells themselves obstruct blood flow and thus causing episodes of pain referred to as sickle cell crises.
Earlier this year the Government of Ghana signed an agreement with Novartis, a global medicine company to use Hydroxyurea to help treat sickle cell disease.
In 2008 the United Nations General Assembly implemented a resolution that recognized the disease as a global public health issue.
World sickle cell day is celebrated on 19th June every year and is used to raise awareness about the disease.
The UN estimates that Over 300,000 babies with severe haemoglobin disorders are annually referring to a category of diseases that sickle disease fall under.
