Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

Dr Monika Asnani: Disease affects every aspect of sicklers' lives. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

Some doctors at Jamaica's leading sickle-cell research unit at the University of the West Indies (UWI) claim patients diagnosed with the blood disorder are not offered optimal health care.

On a recent visit to the unit on the UWI's Mona campus, Dr Monika Asnani, chairperson of the organising committee for the sickle-cell conference, told The Gleaner that patients are not being offered sufficient medical attention.

Asnani attributed the problem to a lack of awareness among medical practitioners, who often regard sickle cell as a specialised disease.

"Sickle cell is actually the most chronic disease, more so than diabetes or heart disease, as it is something that you carry through life, from birth until death," she said.

Clinical manual

To increase awareness about the disease among health practitioners, a step-by-step clinical manual will be launched at Jamaica's first sickle-cell conference to coincide with Sickle Cell Awareness Week at the end of October.

Currently, 18,000-20,000 Jamai-cans live with the disease. Ten per cent of the population carry the sickle-cell trait.

Although Asnani said the figures were not alarming, she explained that the effects on patients were severe as the disease "affects every aspect of their lives".

Over the last 40 years, the unit has been involved in neonatal screening of women at the University Hospital of the West Indies, the Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Spanish Town Hospital, to identify the genetic disorder. Data obtained from these establishments revealed that the trait frequency has remained the same.

Patient turnover

With a patient turnover of 11,000 annually, the sickle-cell unit dispatches a team every week to visit patients in areas such as the Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth and the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

Sickle cell is a disorder of the blood which causes the red blood cells to form a sickle shape, reducing cell flexibility. This often results in difficulties when the red blood cells, which carry oxygen and food, cannot pass easily through small blood vessels.

Clinical director of the unit, Dr Susanna Ali, told The Gleaner that the conference would also dispel misconceptions among colleagues, as well as in the wider society, that sickle-cell patients are drug dependent.

Misconception

"There is a misconception that sickle-ell patients are always seeking drugs, and so they become ostracised, but the truth is they actually need them."

Ali explained that morphine was used to address severe pain at the outpatient clinic, which has 5,000 registered patients and a treatment room with eight beds, but stressed that it was not a prescribed drug.

"The treatment of sickle cell sometimes requires aggressive pain management because the disease is so unpredictable and excruciating.

"So you have to be able to address it quickly. The faster you bring the crisis under control, the faster you can wean them off it (the drug)," she said.

For more information call the Sickle-cell Health Centre at 927-2471.

tendai.franklyn-brown@gleanerjm.com