LUTH, foundation provide safe bone marrow transplant for patient

The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in partnership with the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria (SCFN), has worked for several years to establish a high-quality, safe bone marrow transplant programme.
A statement on Friday by Prof. W. L. Adeyemo, Chief Medical Director, LUTH, and Dr. Annette Akinsete, National Director/ CEO, SCFN, said the programme meets international standards for the cure of sickle cell disease and is accessible to Nigerians at home.
The statement: “Nigeria has the most significant burden of Sickle Cell Disease worldwide. Individuals affected with the disease suffer life-threatening and excruciating complications from early childhood, serious damage to their organs, and reduced life expectancy.
“The establishment of comprehensive care programmes, including newborn screening, penicillin prophylaxis, and Transcranial Doppler screening in children to identify those at risk of stroke, followed by using chronic blood transfusion therapy and the increasing use of hydroxyurea therapy, has improved the proportion of children surviving into adulthood but has not improved the proportion of adults living to older age, especially for the most severely affected.
“Bone marrow transplant using a donor from a family member is an established cure for this disease, first used more than 30 years ago. Bone marrow transplant is associated with known complications such as infection and graft-versus-host disease (when donor cells can attack the patient), infertility, and even death.
“However, this procedure has been much improved over the last 20 years to ensure good outcomes and limit complications. Bone marrow transplant is now an approved therapy for children and adults with severe sickle cell disease.
“Bone marrow transplant is a complex procedure requiring a multidisciplinary team approach and involves treatment and close follow-up for approximately 12 months. The complexity and costs have severely limited those who can obtain this treatment, and most have sought this treatment outside Nigeria, which causes severe hardship for patients and families, only to come home with no local expertise for follow-up.”
Recognizing the gaps in care for individuals affected by the disease in Nigeria, the leadership of SCFN and LUTH established a bone marrow transplant programme at LUTH.
The statement added: “In preparation for a locally adapted and cost-effective bone marrow transplant programme in Nigeria, a post-transplant clinic was initially established in 2019, a first in sub-Saharan Africa, to provide post-transplant care to patients who had travelled to other countries for bone marrow or stem cell transplants, thereby developing clinical expertise in post- transplant care. The programme also established a Stem Cell Processing Laboratory, the first in West Africa.
“This LUTH/SCFN bone marrow transplant programme consists of a high-level multidisciplinary team that includes paediatric and adult haematologists, including Dr. Seye Akinsete (Team lead) and Drs. Ugonna Fakile, Olufunto Kalejaiye, Yusuf Adelabu, and Professor Edamisan Temiye (the Programme Manager), blood transfusion and stem cell processing lab support (Professor Titi Adeyemo and Dr. Ann Ogbenna), bone marrow-transplant nurses, dieticians, social workers, pharmacists, psychiatrists, anaesthesiologists, nurses at the KidsOR (theatre) and other ancillary personnel.”