According to US doctors a drug to treat sickle cells anaemia is safe for use in children and should be made accessible. The blood cells that are sickle shaped are more prone to block blood vessels and expire faster that become cause of pain, damage of organ and early death.
In a study carried out in the Lancet that included more than two hundred US infants. The study found that when half of the infants were given hydroxycarbamide, it resulting diminished pain and other complications. The infants those taking the drug had half the number of painful events.
There was also eighty percent diminution in cases of pain and tenderness in the hands and feet. Hydroxycarbamide is already accessible for use in adults, but its efficacy had not been tested in young children. The only negative effect that study showed was mild or moderate neutropenia, in which the number of infection fighting white blood cells drops.
The study should have major impact on instructions for managing children suffering sickle cell anaemia. Now hydroxycarbamide treatment can be considered for all very young children with sickle cell anaemia. According to David Rees, a consultant pediatric haematologist and medicinal adviser to the Sickle Cell Society, it was heartening that the drug was safe in very young children.
He added that the primary goals of the study had been to show an impact on spleen or kidney function because it had been hoped that if you can intercede early you could prevent organ damage, yet this was not the case.
These findings are extremely encouraging. Hydroxycarbamide is cheap and could undoubtedly be made accessible in low-income countries in which sickle-cell anaemia is so common. In outlook of the early deaths that result from this disease in sub-Saharan Africa, the achievement of this trial in early childhood is particularly encouraging, explained Prof David Weatheral, from the University of Oxford.