Determination of birth prevalence of sickle cell disease using point of care test HemoTypeSC TM at Rundu hospital, Namibia

Abstract

Abstract Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD), a non-communicable disease has its highest burden in Sub Saharan Africa. The majority of children (50-90%), with SCD die before their 5th birthday with approximately 150,000–300,000 annual SCD child deaths in Africa. In developed countries, newborn screening (NBS) has been shown to improve survival of children with sickle cell disease with under 5 childhood mortality reduced 10 fold due to interventions done before development of complications. Point of care tests have been developed for resource limited settings to expand newborn screening. The aim of the study was to determine the birth prevalence of sickle cell disease using the point of care test HemoTypeSC in Namibia. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out at Rundu Intermediate hospital in Kavango East Region. Two hundred and two (202) well newborns within 72 hours of birth were recruited in the study from 22 of February to the 28th of March 2023. Descriptive statistics was used to compute the hemoglobin types of the study participants. Results: The majority of the participants (n=105) (52%) were females and (n= 97) ,(48%) males. The median age of the participants was 23 hours interquartile range (IQR), (11-33 hours) with the age range of 2-98 hours. One hundred and eight three (183) ( 90.6%) had normal haemoglobin HbAA; 19 (9.4%) sickle cell trait (HbAS) and no participant was found to have sickle cell disease (HbSS). Conclusions: The study is the first to carry out birth prevalence for SCD and sickle cell trait as well as the first application of HemotypeSC as screening method in Namibia. There was a high prevalence of sickle cell trait but no SCD. This is a baseline study that can inform policy on the possible adoption of sickle cell disease newborn screening in Namibia.