Nigeria and Uganda have joined forces with key global health organizations, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, to launch OneSCD, a new partnership focused on sickle cell disease, with Nigeria playing a key role as it accounts for around 150,000, or roughly one in three, global SCD births annually.
Sickle Cell Disease as a Cardiovascular Challenge
Dr. Jagat Narula, representing the World Heart Federation, and Dr. Bente Mikkelsen, speaking on behalf of both the World Heart Federation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, presented a message that challenged traditional perspectives: sickle cell disease is as much a cardiovascular disease as it is a blood disorder. The most severe complications, including stroke and lung-related conditions, stem from its cardiovascular impact.
Without proper screening, one in ten children with sickle cell anaemia experiences a stroke before turning twenty, making it the leading cause of stroke among Nigerian children. Adults who survive childhood often face high pulmonary artery pressure, heart muscle stiffening, irregular heart rhythms, blood clots, and sudden death.
The global burden is stark. The Global Burden of Disease study estimates SCD contributes to 376,000 deaths worldwide each year. In regions with newborn screening, 95% of children survive, yet in parts of Nigeria, up to 90% of untreated children die before age five. This disparity is not biological but stems from unmet diagnostic and treatment needs.
Proven Tools for Treatment
The solution lies in three proven interventions: newborn screening, transcranial Doppler scans, and hydroxyurea tablets. Hydroxyurea, a generic medication costing only a few naira daily, reduces painful crises and chest complications. It was proven safe and effective for African children in the REACH trial.
Separate trials in Kano and Kaduna, called SPRING, demonstrated hydroxyurea alone can prevent strokes in at-risk children identified via transcranial Doppler — a portable ultrasound taking just fifteen minutes. These tools are all affordable, proven, and supported by Nigerian evidence.
Integrating Care into Primary Health Systems
Despite these tools, few Nigerian children access them. SCD has been categorized under haematology, confined to teaching hospitals, while most children live in rural areas. However, Nigeria is building an alternative path.
In 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, with WHO and Resolve to Save Lives, launched the Nigeria Hypertension Control Initiative in Kano and Ogun. It equipped primary health centres with protocols, patient registers, and medicines to manage blood pressure through nurses and community health workers.
The same nurse measuring blood pressure can prick a newborn’s heel. The same register tracking hypertension can monitor SCD patients. The same supply chain delivering amlodipine could distribute hydroxyurea. In Kano, these two programs operate independently, but merging them could transform care for SCD children at minimal cost.
On World Heart Day in Abuja on 29 September, the World Heart Federation will advocate for this integration, urging Nigeria’s cardiac societies, heart foundations, and patient groups to unite behind the goal of embedding SCD screening, Doppler scans, and hydroxyurea into existing hypertension clinics, starting in Kano, where infrastructure and evidence already align.
Advocacy on World Heart Day
The World Heart Federation will continue its advocacy for sickle cell disease integration during its 2026 Year of Neglected Cardiac Diseases campaign, centering sickle cell care within primary health systems to address Nigeria’s disproportionate disease burden.
Linking Global Commitments to Local Action
The World Heart Federation will stress that integrating SCD services into hypertension clinics is a practical step.