Even though it has been a while since I have given an update, the sickle cell disease newborn screening program at Koutiala Hospital has continued without any problems. Not even a coup d'etat or a French military operation in the north of Mali could stop us from screening these babies! We have screened over 4000 infants since the program started in August of 2011 and over 120 new cases of sickle cell disease have been diagnosed. Joseph, the nurse coordinator of the clinic, is providing life saving treatment for these children with sickle cell disease including penicillin prophylaxis, immunizations, and anti-malarial therapy. I am looking at the last of the screening results from 2013 at this point, and we will soon have 2 years worth of data to report on the incidence of sickle cell disease in this area of southern Mali.
I am very thankful for the continued support from PerkinElmer as they have donated all of the filter paper cards for the screening program. 10,000 screening cards have been donated so far and they just agreed to continue this relationship with an additional 5,000 cards!
I will update soon with more photos from the clinic and with results from the first 2 years of the program.
