By Fatima Saka
Nigeria has called for coordinated global action to reduce preventable deaths and improve access to quality care for people living with sickle cell disease (SCD), as it joined other countries and international organisations to launch the OneSCD global partnership.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, made the call on Wednesday at the launch of OneSCD, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
Salako said the partnership was designed to close the unacceptable gaps in survival, dignity and access to care affecting millions of people living with SCD globally.
He said SCD affected almost eight million people worldwide, with more than 75 per cent of those affected living in sub-Saharan Africa, where many children die from preventable complications before their fifth birthday.
The minister said Nigeria carried the highest burden of the disease globally, with an estimated 150,000 to 180,000 babies born with SCD in the country annually.
He described the disease as a national priority, noting that Nigeria had embedded its response within its child survival, maternal health, primary healthcare, non-communicable diseases and universal health coverage agendas.
According to him, Nigeria is strengthening its national response through a programme anchored in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, supported by a National Sickle Cell Disease Steering Committee and national guidance for disease control and clinical management.
Salako said the government, in collaboration with partners, was implementing an integrated care pathway involving newborn and under-five screening, confirmation of diagnosis, linkage to treatment and retention of patients in care.
He added that pilot newborn screening programmes in Lagos, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory were testing scalable approaches through maternity, immunisation, paediatric and primary healthcare services.
The minister said that under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria had established and equipped six centres of excellence with high-performance liquid chromatography machines for specialised diagnosis.
He said the government was also working to improve access to affordable diagnostics and medicines, strengthen supply chains, train health workers, establish referral networks and integrate SCD indicators into national health information systems.
Salako further said Nigeria was pursuing sustainable financing through health insurance, domestic resources and responsible public-private partnerships to reduce the financial burden on affected families.
He noted that despite the concentration of the global SCD burden in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, India and the Middle East, the international response continued to face inequities, structural bottlenecks, fragmentation and historical under-prioritisation.
He said OneSCD was therefore important because it would provide a global mechanism for connecting political leadership, technical expertise, lived experiences and financing around country-led action.
As a champion country, Salako said Nigeria would continue to integrate early diagnosis and comprehensive care across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare levels.
He said the country would also strengthen accountability through improved data, measurable targets and sustainable financing, while ensuring that people living with SCD and their families remained at the centre of policy and programme design.
The minister called on multilateral institutions, development partners, philanthropies, researchers and the private sector to align their efforts and invest in country-owned systems to move proven interventions from pilot projects to national scale.
Salako said the launch of OneSCD should move sickle cell disease from being a neglected condition to a major global health priority.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that the initiative went beyond a ceremonial launch to deliver coordinated action, mutual accountability and measurable progress.
READ ALSO: NASC Appoints Edith Ajah Onyinyechi Deputy-Clerk of Senate Admin
Boat launched to ease school commute for Lagos riverine pupils
He said the ultimate goal should be to ensure that a child’s place of birth no longer determined whether the child survived and thrived with sickle cell disease.
Nigeria co-hosted and co-organised the OneSCD launch with Uganda, India, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, UNICEF, WHO, Africa CDC, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the World Coalition on SCD.
About The Author
