Overview of current progress and challenges in diagnosis, and management of pediatric sickle cell disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Sickle cell disease (SCD) encompasses health complications, primarily affecting the hematologic system and leading to high death rates in childhood. As a rule, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stepwise gold-standard about the strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of SCD must be multidimensional. This overview aimed to highlight current advances and challenges linked to strategic issues, diagnosis, the prevalence, and treatment of pediatric cases in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Methods

We searched data on Google Scholar, Medline, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and ResearchGate.

Results

The laboratory diagnosis of SCD has progressed from conventional electrophoresis to rapid point-of-care tests that allows early neonate screening. HemoTypeSC^TM is an affordable test for neonatal screening in DRC. The pediatric SCD prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa lay within 1–7.7% of homozygous(SS) and 15–40% of the heterozygous(AS) forms of SCD, depending on the method used and the ethnic population tested. Various supportive management protocols for comorbidities and complications exist, but they are not standardized in the Region.

Conclusion

Notwithstanding some progress accomplished, the disease is still challenging in Sub-Saharan Africa due to limited early diagnostic testing and a lack of specific medications. There is a need for harmonizing therapeutic protocols and conducting controlled valid clinical trials.

KEYWORDS:

• Sickle cell disease
• pediatrics
• diagnosis
• prevalence
• management
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• DR-Congo

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Academy of Research and Higher Education of the Belgian Development Cooperation for supporting the PRD-DREPAKIS project and the Synergie Save Drepachild project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).