Dr Siana Watoky Nkya
AfOx Fellow 2019
Hemoglobinopathies are common in Sub Saharan Africa, including Tanzania. Globally, Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is the most common haemoglobinopathy, with over 300,000 babies born with the condition worldwide. Tanzania ranks 5th in countries with the highest SCD birth prevalence.
Increased survival of individuals with SCD can be achieved by early diagnosis by newborn screening (NBS) and comprehensive care. In Africa, no country has succeeded in establishing a sustainable NBS-SCD programme due to, among other things, the cost of screening technologies. DNA based methods are known to be accurate and sensitive and can be used to complement conventional assays. However, DNA methods are traditionally expensive and require a longer turnaround time.
We have developed a relatively low-cost, low maintenance, remote access mobile DNA analysis for infant/early childhood screening for SCD, which will be used to identify haemoglobin mutations from neonates DNA extracted from dried blood spots (DBS) or peripheral blood.