Prevalence Of Sickle Cell Disease In Kilamba Kiaxi Hospital, Luanda, Angola

Abstract

Sickle-cell disease is one of the most important causes of severe anaemia in Africa. This study intend to determine the prevalence of sickle cell disease among children in Kilamba Kiaxi in Luanda, Angola. Hospital Divina Providência (Kilamba Kiaxi, Luanda, Angola) laboratory équipe, collected data for all the patients sicklewith diagnosis of sickle-cell disease during 2009 and 2010. More than 10,000 patients were investigated to determine those that will test positive for sickle cell disease. The result showed that sickle-cell disease affects 25% of population. Also the risk of severe anaemia and AS and SS genotypes accounted for the similar prevalence in the studied population. Apositive diagnosis for the sickle-cell disease is not always confirmed by haemoglobin electrophoresis. This present pilot study could be a good beginning to create a drepanocytosis register in Luanda and to correlate drepanocytic patients with blood transfusion requirements.

Keywords: sickle cell disease, Angola, haemoglobin electrophoresis

The Tropical Journal of Health Sciences Vol 19 No 1 (January 2012)