A team of researchers led by UNC Project-Malawi has received a one-year, $500,000 grant to build clinical and research capacity in Malawi to better diagnose and treat children with sickle cell disease. The funding is a joint award from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Approximately 2,000 infants are born with sickle cell disease — which is an inherited red blood cell disorder — annually in Malawi. A similar number of Malawian infants are born annually with HIV. Yet efforts to treat children with sickle cell disease lag decades behind HIV treatment in the country. In sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Malawi, approximately 300,000 infants are born annually with sickle cell disease. Without diagnosis and proper care, half to 90 percent of those children will die before their fifth birthday. In the United States, by comparison, newborn screening and comprehensive care with a focus on infection prevention through vaccines and antibiotics mean that only one percent of children with sickle cell disease die in early childhood. Read more…