THE government has insisted on the need for health education programme for prevention of sickle cell disease, as the country records 11,000 new patients every year.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of State, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, Dr Grace Magembe, called for intervention to break the sickle cell cycle.
Speaking during the launching of the Break the Sickle Cycle Campaign Programme Report on Monday, Dr Magembe said it is high time all concerned stakeholders started awareness campaign in schools, colleges and universities to handle the situation.
Moreover, she said, the public needs to be mobilized to go for genetic counseling and screening as one of the interventions in a bid to break the sickle cycle.
She commended the campaign, saying the health education programme will lead to awareness and prevention of the sickle cell disease.
Dr Magembe said Tanzania is one of the five countries in the world with the highest number of children born with sickle cell annually, ranking number four next to India.
She underscored the need of premarital genetic screening in a bid to fight the high sickle cell disease burden,calling for religious leaders to team up with the government to educate the worshipers about the need of such checks before marriage.
“Identifying students with sickle cell traits will enable youth to make informed decisions when choosing partners to start family with.If they choose a non-trait partner, it means that they will have no chance of having babies with sickle cell disease,leading to primary prevention” said Dr Magembe.
Earlier, Tanzania Sickle Cell Disease Alliance (TANSCDA), Dr Deogratias Soka said sickle cell has emerged to be one of the major non-communicable diseases across the globe.
In the country, he said, among every 1,000 live births per year, eight are born with sickle cell disease with a prevalence of 1.2 per cent.
Moreover, he said, there is a high mortality among under five-mortality rate, thus, the impact of the disease in the community has necessitated the country to have preventive and treatment options to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with it.
He mentioned the regions with the highest prevalence as Kagera, Mwanza, Geita and Mara while the lowest prevalence has been observed in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Pwani.