KAMPALA – The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health of Uganda, Dr. Diana Atwine, has called on African countries to pay more attention to one of Africa’s major killers: Sickle Cell Disease.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Ministry official made this call at the commissioning of the Technical Validation Workshop and the launch of the Continental Plan for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and other Rare Blood Disorders.
The high-level ceremony was held on Monday, May 11th, 2026, at Speke Resort Munyonyo, marking a turning point in Africa’s public health landscape in tackling the disease.
Addressing the participants, Dr. Atwine urged African countries to pay more attention to Sickle Cell Disease by setting aside national budgets for screening, treatment, and medicines.
She stressed that no country can fight a disease it refuses to pay for, noting that many ordinary families cannot afford treatment because medicines remain very expensive.
“Sickle Cell Disease has been ignored for far too long across our continent. We cannot keep asking families to suffer in silence because medicines are too expensive. I urge all African governments to open their national budgets for screening, treatment, and medicines. A disease that affects millions of our children deserves the same attention and funding we give to other major health challenges,” said PS Atwine.
Officiating at the function, the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, said the ambitious plan was developed through a careful process involving many partners to create a shared roadmap for African nations.
The Minister explained that for too long, Sickle Cell Disease has been treated as a quiet crisis, and that this plan is a lifeline which declares that no family should suffer silently or face financial ruin because a child is born with a genetic blood disorder.
“For too long, Sickle Cell Disease has been a quiet crisis in Africa. Today, that silence ends. This new Continental Plan is our promise to every family that no child should suffer or die simply because they were born with a blood disorder. We are finally giving this fight the attention and action it deserves,” said Minister Aceng.
The Director General of Health Services, Prof. Charles Olaro, stated that the new Continental Plan will likely help close the long-standing gap between high-level continental policies and the daily realities of local communities.
He explained that unlike many strategies that lacked direction, this plan is built on solid, real-world data with one clear and simple goal: to save as many lives as possible across the African continent.
Meanwhile, health experts warn that these diseases are slowly becoming a bigger public health problem than many other diseases that already receive special attention.
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