We are glad to announce the launch of the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Newborn Screening (NBS) programme in Zambia that will be held on 21 April 2021 at 11:30 AM (South Africa time) at the Arthur Davison Children’ Hospital in Ndola.
The programme aims at integrating the first SCD NBS and early therapeutic intervention program within the existing framework of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and HIV early infant diagnosis (HIV-EID), in Zambia.
In particular, it intends to establish yearly screening of 10,000 newborns for SCD, within the COnsortium on Newborn Screening in Africa for SCD (CONSA) as well as to develop a SCD registry using an electronic database that captures demographic, medical and laboratory information of children diagnosed with SCD and being followed up.
Screening sites will be initially limited to 3 facilities. The clinical screening of the patients will be held at Arthur Davison Children’ Hospital (ADCH), University Teaching Hospitals-Children’s Hospital (UTHs-CH), University Teaching Hospitals-Women and Newborn Hospital (UTHs-WNBH), while the samples will be tested at Tropical Diseases Research Centre (TDRC) laboratory by using the Isoelectric focusing (IEF) machine.
ARISE has actively supported the implementation of this programme in Zambia.
Stay tuned for further updates!
