By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
•Participants
The Rotary Club of Lekki Phase 1 has collaborated with the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA) and Covenant Medication Groups (CMG) Global Foundation to donate four Trans Cranial Doppler (TCF) equipment and the sum of N500,000 to the Sickle Cell Foundation, Idi-Araba, Lagos.
At the presentation ceremony, which took place recently at Idi Araba, Lagos, the Rotary Club President, Mike Jaga, told journalists that the club contacted ANPA while ANPA contacted CMG and CMG provided the equipment.
Jaga said the project is at the heart of Rotary because anything that has to do with children is always important and part of the core areas of focus.
Jaga said that the sickle cell genetic disorder is prevalent in Nigeria and West Africa of which 150 children born in Nigeria,100 of them die before the age of five. And that getting to know this from the sickle cell foundation, they were moved and decided to support them.
He said that after assessment exercise on the facility, they discovered they needed
Trans Cranial Doppler (TCD) equipment needed to detect and prevent sickle cell kids from having crisis or diagnosed with strokes as early detection helps to keep them in check.
He, however, noted that the plan was conceived by the immediate past President of the club, Yetunde Dimowo, in 2022/2023 Rotary year. He stated that while they had planned to buy just one, they got four of the TCD machines through the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the America (ANPA), which he said will go a long way to prevent crisis.
During the presentation of the medical equipment for sickle cell patients, the National Director/CEO, Sickle Cell Foundation, Nigeria, Dr. Annette Akinsete, called on the Federal Government and government at all levels to prioritize sickle cell condition in Nigeria by stipulating guidelines and policies that can assist the management of the disease which is a burden in Nigeria due to the numbers of persons who live with the condition.
Akinsete estimated that about 150,000 babies born every year with sickle cell in Nigeria, and a 100,000 die before celebrating their fifth birthday. “Nigeria is sickle cell capital of the the whole world. Nigeria has highest burden of sickle cell disorder. And so we should really be in the forefront in the fight,” Akinsete said.
She added that for sickle cell initiatives and research efforts around sickle cell disease that Nigeria should be number one, but it hasn’t been the case .
She said: “Most of the developments that we have today in the sickle cell space came from the research that has taken place in America. And yet America doesn’t have as much as 100
“So, in terms of the burden of the disease, Nigeria is number one, What we are doing with the foundation is managing the condition and helping families stay together by encouraging them.
“My assessment is more awareness and attention is needed to be drawn to it. Government has to prioritise sickle cell condition. In government scale of operations on healthcare delivery, sickle cell condition do not have much attention.
“The foundation picked up the slack. And that’s how sickle cell foundation in Nigeria started 30 years ago.We have been involved with everything across the spectrum of sickle cell from prevention of sickle cell so you don’t have it in the first place to treatment, care support, welfare, advocacy and, now, cure.
“We now have the bone marrow transplant centre in collaboration with Lagos University Hospital, (LUTH) and the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in America. We now have this in Nigeria now. So, this treatment is available to our people. And it’s very high quality and safe. Those are the things that we keep emphasising -safety and quality. We have it here for our people locally available and accessible
“Basically,we cannot do this on our own because we depend on donations from charitable organisations and individuals.”
A Nigerian United States based pulmonary and critical care medicine physician, Dr Ngozika Orjioke, who brought the TCD machines, said she provides critical care services within the context of some of the community hospitals. She said: “Myself and my partners, Dr. Mark and Joe Lang, who we fondly call Dr. Jay, who is also a pulmonary critical care physician and a public health officer, have done a lot of work with tuberculosis. And so the four of us collaborated to support the initiative.”
Orjioke said when COVID-19 brought the world to its knees, they were scared for Nigerians “We always talked about giving back to Nigeria, especially in the area of critical care, because unfortunately, we don’t have ICUs. We have people who try to run ICUs: three beds, four beds, six beds, and it’s run generally by anesthesiologists and the anaesthesia training for critical care is very different from the medical training for critical care.
She added that anaesthesia can support a patient in the operating room, bring the math manager for the next 346 hours.
“So, COVID kind of made it very glaring that if we were hit with a pandemic like the rest of the world, there will be trouble.
“So, we trusted in God’s mercy and Nigeria kind of escaped. And a lot of Sub-Saharan Africa escaped. So things that we talked about for years because of experiences that our loved ones had here.
“We had decided that we’re going to come together and actually set up a foundation that will start reaching out, to make health care accessible. So just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean you have to die, to also make it qualitative and also to make it excellent.
“We’re here to improve healthcare across Nigeria, across borders, collaborating with people who already have something in place, and then building on that and so that was the idea.
“So, when I reached out about the fact that there were no Transcranial Dopplers, the foundation decided to step up to the plate and say, ‘this may not be critical care, but it’s still in health care’. This may not be critical care, but it is care that is required, it’s needed. And so what we did was get into a partnership with some sky vascular, who are they trained in ultrasound dopplers and went ahead and purchased the first units which is what you saw today.
“The goal is to be able to purchase enough units like I said before, that every geopolitical area in this nation should have a doctor so that every child that is at risk for a stroke from sickle cell will get that preventative ultrasound that will signal that this child is at risk.
Femi Adenekan said they came to fulfill two out of the Rotary areas of focus: Disease prevention and maternal and infant treatment. “We are supporting the Sickle Cell center with a diagnosis machine
Trans Crannial Doppler. This is in partnership with another NGO. We have seen that the center is equally equipped and still need more support,” he said.
Past President of the club, Yetunde Dimowo, said she had friends and family at a tender age who suffered sickle cell, but she couldn’t help. She said: “My best friend and sister died of sickle cell. It became a cause so dear to my heart. I got in touch with the Sickle Cell Foundation through Mr Yemi Onalaja, who encouraged me to support them and I obliged. I was doing my little bits and I started talking to family and friends so we were able to understand the situation faced by the students.
“Basically, I am passionate about touching lives, and a member of Rotary Club. So, when this opportunity came to serve, I decided to embrace the project. Thank God it’s a reality. Apart from the equipment, we are donating the sum of N500,000.
“Government needs to improve the health care infrastructure. A lot of children with sickle cell are going through so much and we need to get people informed in the environment, especially in the suburbs where people are unaware that sickle cell is curable and can be managed.
“Moreso, create awareness over the myths surrounding the disease. In other for you to be cured, you must understand the cause. They need to do the test and understand it is something in the blood.”