Partnership signed with the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis (Senegal)

11/12/2013

A partnership agreement was signed between Fondation Pierre Fabre and the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis.

The signing took place during an official ceremony held in Saint-Louis, Senegal, on 12 November 2013.

Since 2006, Fondation Pierre Fabre has made the fight against sickle cell disease one of its major areas of intervention through many initiatives, including opening the Research Centre to combat Sickle Cell Disease in Bamako, Mali.

Sickle cell disease, an inherited haemoglobin disorder, is the most common genetic disease in the world. In Africa, prevalence of the sickle cell trait varies from 5% to 40%, depending on the region. It is estimated that 1% of children born are affected, translating to 350,000 a year. Without early and appropriate treatment, 50% of these children die before the age of five.

The objective of this project undertaken with the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and, more specifically, with Professor Ibrahima Diagne, a paediatrician who is Director of the UFR des Sciences de la Santé (the university’s health sciences training and research unit) and also leader of the project, is to combine care and research. Early screening of newborns in the surrounding maternity hospitals and wards and early management of those with sickle cell anaemia, for a period of five years, will make it possible to develop a model, adapted to Senegal’s conditions, that can be applied across the country.

The first year of the project will be devoted to building a testing laboratory and the outpatient unit, set within the University, as well as preparing screening activities in the maternity facilities. After the study has ended, children will continue to be monitored until they reach 15 years of age.