Médecins Sans Frontières - Sickle cell disease

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF236838

Date taken / Date Recorded 11/05/2018 12:00 AM

Country Niger

Commissioning section MSF-SWITZERLAND

Photographer / videographer / producer Elise Mertens

Copyright Elise Mertens/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m12s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 202.25 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist (text) What is sickle cell disease ?

(voice) Sickle cell is a blood disorder and it's the most common genetic disease worldwide.

(text) Ante Wind
Paediatrician in the Learning and Development Unit, MSF

(voice) It's believed that about 250 000 to 400 000 children with sickle cell disease are born every year and of those a vast majority are born in sub saharan Africa.

(text) What are the symptoms of sickle cell ?

(voice) If you have sickle cell disease you can have chronic anaemia which make children feel tired, they are unable to focus in school and just generally feeling unwell all the time.
They can have acute pain episodes, severe pain of the abdomen, of the back, of the arms and they can also have recurrent infections because their immune system isn't working the way that it should.

(text) What causes sickle cell ?

(voice) Sickle cell is caused by the sickle cell gene and if you have one copy of that gene, you have what is called sickle cell trait so you won't have any of the symptoms of sickle cell disease but what you do have is the chance to pick up and pass that gene onto your child.

(voice) If a person with the sickle cell trait, meaning one copy of the gene has a child with a person who also has the trait, then they have a 25 % chance of passing the disease onto their child.

(text animation) Sickle cell gene – 25% chance of passing the disease – 62 401-104 862, 250 000-400 000

(text) What is MSF doing to address sickle cell ?

(voice) MSF offers simple and effective measures to reduce the frequency and the severity of the symptoms of sickle cell disease.

(text) Stem cell or bone marrow transplants are the only cure for sickle cell disease. The symptoms can, however, be managed and the complications can be significantly reduced.
Without any intervention, sickle cell disease kills 50-80% of children affected in sub-saharan Africa before the age of 5.

(voice) By offering vaccines, simple medications like Amoxicillin, folic acid, we are able to treat the anaemia and the recurrent infections. We can also offer pain medications to treat the pain and blood transfusions to treat the complications of sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease - Webclip (INTER)

Sickle cell disease - Webclip (INTER)