OVER five million sickle cell patients in
Nigeria and other African countries can now heave
a sigh of relief as the University of Ibadan in
partnership with the University of Illinois, Chicago,
USA and University of Loyola, Chicago have
discovered a permanent cure for the terminal
disease.
The cure of the deadly disease, according to the
Professor of Medicine, Victor Gordeuk, who is the
Director, Sickle Cell Centre, University of Illinois,
Chicago, USA and his colleagues, Prof. Damiano
Rondelli, also from the same university and Prof.
Bamidele Tayo, University of Loyola, Chicago this
new treatment is done through bone marrow
transplant and that it is less risky.
This was revealed yesterday at the University
College Hospital, Ibadan after a three-day
brainstorming session with other experts in the
teaching hospital.
Unlike the other conventional method of stem cell
transplant which exposes patients to radiation which
could cause cancer, first blood and marrow stem
cell transplant, BMT, is much more effective.
The experts who were flanked by the Chief Medical
Director, UCH, Prof. Temitope Alonge, Dr. Titilola
Akingbola, an haematologist and Dr. Foluke Fasola,
said this stem cell transplant is a standard
procedure for the treatment of many blood cancers
in both adult and children.
He said: "With this chemotherapy-free transplant,
we are curing adults with sickle cell disease, and
we see that their quality of life improves fast within
just one month of the transplant.
"About 90 per cent of the approximately 450
patients who have received stem cell transplants
for sickle cell disease have been children.
Chemotherapy has been considered too risky for
adult patients, who are often more weakened than
children by the disease.
"Adults with sickle cell disease can now be cured
without chemotherapy — the main barrier that has
stood in the way for them for so long. Our data
provide more support that this therapy is safe and
effective and prevents patients from living
shortened lives, condemned to pain and progressive
complications."
"In the new procedure, patients receive immuno-
suppressive drugs just before the transplant, along
with a very low dose of total body irradiation, a
treatment much less harsh and with fewer
potentially serious side effects than chemotherapy."
" Donor cells from a healthy and tissue-matched
sibling are transfused into the patient. Stem cells
from the donor produce healthy new blood cells in
the patient, eventually in sufficient quantity to
eliminate symptoms. In many cases, sickle cells
can no longer be detected. Patients must continue
to take immunosuppressant drugs for at least a
year.
The CMD, Prof. Alonge who called for support from
government, philanthropists, donour agencies and
corporate bodies like banks and Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation for provision of equipment
and completion of the sickle cell centre, described
sickle cell as a disease of bone crisis which the
patient suffers from head to toe.
He added that Sickle Cell Disease is a genetic
disorder due to the presence of an abnormal form of
haemoglobin in the red blood cells, called
haemoglobin S (Hb S) instead of haemoglobin A (Hb
A). Haemoglobin in the red blood cell is responsible
for the transportation of oxygen in the body.
