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INCORPORATING PROGRAMMES
INTO HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS
and vaccines against the infections to which such patients are particularly prone).
RESUMPTION OF THE PROJECT WITH
THE IECD
The multi-country support project that has been carried out with the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD) since 2014 will come to an end in March 2021. It will be partially taken over by the Foundation, through funding requested from AFD, and cover a four-country perimeter: the DRC, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and the Central African Republic. Achievement in 2020: the design of a free training space created with help from the Université Numérique Francophone Mondiale (Worldwide Francophone Digital University.) “E-Drépanocytose” is designed to help healthcare professionals recognise symptoms of, and screen for, this disease and provide regular monitoring of sickle cell patients. This e-learning module anticipates the prospect of an increase in sickle-cell cases and an increased need for personnel trained in treating the disease.
The Foundation’s systemic approach, meant to increase the impact and sustainability of the projects it supports, further materialised in 2020 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the development of a national strategic plan to fight sickle cell disease that was aligned with the National Health Development Plan. This makes the DRC the first country in sub- Saharan Africa to include treatment for this disease in its minimum healthcare package, on a par with tuberculosis or malaria. The initial implementation, to last for three years, begins in 2021.
A similar concept is being developed in Burkina Faso, where the Foundation has been active since 2014. A national programme was rolled out in 2020 (read the interview opposite), achieved in very close partnership with the Burkinabe Ministry of Health and co-financed by the AFD. In Mali, support for the Research Centre to Combat Sickle Cell Disease (CRLD) was renewed in 2020 using the same comprehensive approach. There, clinical data is carefully gathered, the volume of which holds significant potential for analysis, involving more than 12,000 patients, nearly 10,000 doctor’s visits and 60,000 laboratory examinations between January and September 2020.
In Guinea, where sickle cell disease affects 20% of the population (according to 2019 statistics from the Donka National Hospital), the Foundation works alongside the Centre to Combat Sickle-Cell Disease and the SOS Drépanocytaires Guinée non- profit organisation. In 2020, the pandemic delayed completion of certain projects, such as creating an analysis laboratory and a pharmacy centre, but patient care continued, with nearly 2,000 consultations between May and September 2020. The Foundation is also active in the Central African Republic: in 2020, support for the Sickle Cell Disease Research and Treatment Centre was devoted to supplying medicines and staff training.
In Haiti, neonatal screening and early diagnosis work was extended to the two major public hospitals in Port-au-Prince (State University of Haiti Hospital and Universitaire de la Paix Hospital) and 2,000 children with sickle cell disease were given treatment (medicines
COMBATING SICKLE CELL DISEASE
PURSUING LOCAL PROJECTS,
strengthening global
and international commitment
OUR ACTIONS
Progress in research programmes
The Foundation supports several research programmes, such as
the IMPAS study with the Centre Pasteur in Cameroon, the PRESERV study conducted with the Hôpital Henri Mondor in Paris, and the pharmacological evaluation being done with the Malagasy Institute for Applied Research. In 2020, the results of the MIDAS project, carried out with Inserm Unit 970, show an excess mortality of 25% in children under
10 born to sickle cell families (patients with access to referral healthcare structures).
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