CONGO: Sickle cell anaemia increasing, officials say

BRAZZAVILLE, 19 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Medical researchers in the Republic of Congo say that 30 percent of people in the country have sickle cell anaemia, a painful, usually fatal, disease that occurs almost exclusively among Africans and people of African descent.

Previously, the percentage of Congolese thought to have the disease was between 20 percent and 25 percent.

"The increase is alarming," Elira Dokekias, the head of the Department of Haematology and Internal Medicine at Brazzaville University, told IRIN on Saturday.

He led a study at the end of 2004 in which thousands of people in the capital city Brazzaville and the commercial city of Point-Noire were tested.

"We found that 25 to 30 out of 100 carried the disease," he said.

Sickle cell anaemia is a blood disorder characterised by joint pain, fever, leg ulcers and jaundice. It is not contagious; and is inherited when both parents carry the gene that causes it.

The minister of health and population, Alphonse Gando, said on Saturday that the government, with the support of the UN World Health Organization and NGOs, planned to launch a campaign in June to fight the disease.

He said the government would create a database of people who are infected and treatment centres.

Dokekias said treatment increases people's life expectancy but the medicines are expensive and not readily available in the country.

"Around half of the people who do not get treatment die before they reach the age of 25," he said.

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