Luweero sickle cell clinic overwhelmed by patients

Luweero. The Sickle Cell Clinic at Luweero Health Centre IV, in Luweero District has reportedly surpassed the number of patients it originally targeted.
The clinic currently has 850 registered patients, up from the targeted 200 patients it can ably handle.
The patients mainly come from Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola districts.

“The sickle cell clinic is in constant need of blood for the transfusion services including anti-biotics which are got from the government supplies meant to run the entire health centre IV departments at the facility,” Mr Sinani Mabuya, the officer in-charge of Luweero Health Centre IV, said at the weekend.
“We run out of anti-biotics because of the big number of sicklers who turn up for treatment. We are forced to prescribe for them drugs so that they can buy them from the private pharmacies,” Mr Mabuya added.

Appeal
Unlike other special clinics which get various funders to boost their service delivery, the sickle cell clinic in Luweero is reportedly only supported by the Holy Foundation organisation.
“We appeal to the different health based non-government organisations including donors to consider sickle cell anaemia as a serious ailment which should get support in terms of supplies and sensitisation ,” Ms Marble Nakato, the director of Holy Foundation said . “We run a charity in London to help support our patients back home in Uganda. Sickle cell anaemia like any other disease calls for mass awareness campaign programmes. It is unfortunate that many people do not take sickle cell disease serious and only wake up when they get a sickler,” Ms Nakato said
On December 15, Holy Foundation launched a fundraising campaign aimed at boosting service delivery at the sickle cell clinic.

About 85 per cent of the sickle cell patients registered at the clinic are between ages 1 and 17 years, but the services are open for the adults who now turn up for treatment.
Mr Joseph Serugo, the Luweero District vice chairperson, said the funds are released on quarterly basis where the Shs17m is supposed to ensure good service delivery per quarter.

Statistics
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), sickle cell anaemia is a major genetic disease that affects many countries in Africa. In countries such as Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana and Nigeria, the prevalence is between 20 per cent and 30 per cent while in some parts of Uganda, it is as high as 45 per cent. A recent Uganda Sickle Cell Surveillance study that assessed the burden of the disease revealed the overall number of children with sickle cell trait was 12,979 while 716 had the disease.

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