SCD patients petition State for support over high cost

Persons living with sickle cell disease in Western region have  petitioned the government to put up interventions  to address its high prevalence.

The team under the auspices of Tumaini Sickle Cell Organization, wants the administration to provide for legislation giving tax exemption to adults living with sickle cell disease and parents to children living with SCD, saying this would cushion them from the heavy financial burden in the management of the disease.

 Similarly, they are pushing to have sickle cell disease considered as a national health problem and hence provision of free medicine for the management of the disease.

 “We the people living with sickle cell in Western Kenya demand that Sickle cell clinics are set up in public health facilities in high prevalence regions such as Nyanza, Western and Coastal counties. There should also be oxygen cylinders in all health facilities with sickle cell support clinics set up,” said Sharon Jessica, one of those living with SCD. 

 Jessica said it was important that the government provides free drugs for those living with sickle cell disease, noting that the drugs despite being subsidized still not many people are able to afford them.

“We demand that the government makes these drugs available for the sickles for free the way it has been done for people living with HIV and those with cancer,” she said.

They also called on the government to enact a law making it compulsory for all insurance companies offering health insurance to remove capping limits that only allow for a small per centage of the sum insured when one gets hospitalized.