Sickle cell reversed with world first therapy

By Ojoma Akor  A pioneer treatment on a French teenager suffering from sickle cell disease has shown promise of a cure for millions of people suffering from the disease worldwide. Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. […]

By Ojoma Akor 

A pioneer treatment on a French teenager suffering from sickle cell disease has shown promise of a cure for millions of people suffering from the disease worldwide.

Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body.

Over 40 million Nigerians are carriers of the “S” gene making it the country with the largest population of people anywhere with the disorder.  It is also estimated that about 100,000 Nigerian children are born each year with sickle cell. 

The world-first procedure at Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris reversed the teenager’s sickle cell disease using a pioneering treatment to change his DNA.

Doctors altered the genetic instructions in his bone marrow- the part of the body that makes blood, the corrected bone marrow was then put back into the patient and  it made healthy red blood cells.

The results published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the teenager has been making normal blood since the procedure 15 months ago and the child is no longer on any medication.

The President of the Sickle Cell Society, Ireland, and Sickle Cell Awareness Initiative Nigeria-Ireland, Mrs. Esther Pepple Onolememen, speaking at an awareness campaign on sickle cell recently said more than half of the country’s population maybe affected by the disease in the next 10 years if urgent action was not taken by government and relevant stakeholders.