With thanks to Wilson Were, WHO
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Wilson Milton Were
Senior Medical Officer at World Health Organization
Today is a milestone for child health.
WHO has released its first-ever normative guideline on the management of sickle-cell disease (SCD) in children and adolescents (0–19 years).
SCD is the most common inherited blood disorder in the world. In 2021, over half a million babies were born with the condition, 90% of them in low- and middle-income countries. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, 50–90% of children with SCD still die before their fifth birthday, often without ever being diagnosed.
The new guideline closes a longstanding global gap with 15 evidence-based recommendations, developed using the GRADE methodology, across seven priority areas:
→ Point-of-care diagnosis
→ Antibiotic prophylaxis
→ Hydroxyurea therapy
→ Pain management
→ Acute chest syndrome
→ Stroke prevention, including transcranial Doppler screening
→ Screening for complications
The recommendations will be integrated into the WHO Pocket Book of Hospital Care for Children and the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) package taking SCD care to the primary and first-referral hospital levels where children actually present.
Sincere thanks to the Guideline Development Group, external reviewers, methodologists, the evidence synthesis team, and colleagues across WHO departments, regional and country offices who made this possible.
The next chapter is implementation.
�� Read the guideline: https://lnkd.in/e83jZdkT
hashtag#SickleCellDisease hashtag#ChildHealth hashtag#GlobalHealth hashtag#HealthEquity hashtag#WHO
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Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org