Commute by Internet

Driving into town from Heathrow last Monday morning, and squeezed in behind the driver’s seat of a Renault Mégane, I’m sure I should be forgiven for thinking that I was on my way back to Accra on that British Airways red-eye that had just disgorged a couple of hundred of us at Terminal 5.

                Just about every part of me was sour, not excluding my mood, which became even more dyspeptic as the morning traffic gradually slowed down to a crawl. It took 90 minutes to complete a journey that, according to Google Maps, should have taken only 36. I know, we don’t live in heaven, but even in this kind of hell, one and a half hours is far too long to sit on the road doing nothing apart from stamping carbon footprints all over the place and making things worse than they already are.

And I know, I know. Who am I to talk after discharging tons of carbon travelling the five thousand K between London and Accra and then back? But there was not a practical alternative. And to add to my dyspepsia, as we jerked along in that morning commute, the vast majority of cars had only one occupant. I know we all love our privacy and enjoy an exclusive domain in which to scratch, fart and listen to our own brand of music or radio. But think about the other inconveniences and consequences of this type of indulgence. For example, who needs to leave home an hour or even two earlier than is required to cover a finite mileage, when there is a perfectly sensible alternative? Just don’t drive into the gridlock that we insist on making of our roads. Let someone else do the driving and leave at a more sociable hour and, not to mention, save time on useless hanging about over asphalt. What about the fuel that could be saved? That is saving that could make us all quite rich before we know it. This applies everywhere, not just in the space around London.

We haven’t even begun to consider the bigger space of the environment, which is already feeling distinctly unwell. Just think if we seriously car-pool. In a pool of 5 we can cut down the traffic by four-fifths and in one of 6 by 85% and one of twelve by 90%. We already have the means to do this efficiently using GPS and internet connectivity. I don’t even have to explain, you work it out yourself.

By the way, that Sickle Cell Congress went very well and we all came away with a warm feeling all over. All we need now is to transfer this feeling to those with the disease. ASAP.

Tell Fren Tru

History & Pain of sickle cell: Accra 2010

Today, Thursday, was the day we looked back into history. The first instance was a look back a hundred years ago at the personalities involved in the case of Walter Noel Clement, who was the first case of sickle cell described in the western medical literature. Although Clemens’ case had been worked out by the intern at that hospital in Chicago, it was his boss, Thomas James Herrick that took the credit and got the fame. Nothing new about that, I hear you say. Clement returned to Granada eventually after qualifying, and set up practice in St George, the capital. Strangely, virtually nothing of him survives, except his signature. Not even a picture. So, although we know what his blood looked like, we have no idea about the man himself. We were taken to his graveside by the lecturer, though, who showed us tombstones before and after hurricane. We also went and raided the contents of a tomb that was 3200 years old. During the last year, researchers from Egypt and Europe were able to do detailed examinations of the mummified body of the boy-King Tutankhamun, after which, they concluded that the Boy King had died of malaria. This conclusion has been contested by other experts who now think that it was more likely that sickle cell anemia was the cause of death instead. This mater was brought up at the congress in the context of discussing how long sickle cell has been in African populations.

Sickle cell anemia is dominated by pain, and so a big chunk of today’s session was dedicated to pain and how to deal with it. The major point that was made was that caregivers need to understand the suffering that pain induces in sickle cell patients and to be ready to deal with it. Not treating pain adequately is one of the most serious complaints that sickle cell patients have about the way they are cared for. It seems that there is still a serious need for education among care givers and sickle cell patients deed to be on the frontline to make sure that the required lessons are taught.   

Tell Fren Tru

Fighting Sickle Cell

You may be wondering what might have happened to me during the long silence since I last made a posting.

Well, the answer is simple. I had been so gripped by FIFA World Cup events in South Africa that just about everything else was blown out of orbit. And shortly afterwards, I followed that up with a real visit to Africa, this time to Accra in Ghana. However, this is not relaxation as watching the World Cup had been. Here there are no vuvuzellas to lift the spirit when faced with the repeated disappointment as  time after time, the team one was supporting faced and suffered elimination. Interestingly though, even after three days, I can see no signs of Ghanaians pining over what might have been. They seem to have picked themselves right up and, judging by the choked streets of Accra, life has returned to business as usual. And usual business includes hosting major international conferences.

The conference I am attending is the First ever Global Congress on Sickle Cell Disease. As many of you might know, sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that has a high prevalence among people of Africa descent. As some of you might also know, sickle cell disease is one of the so-called neglected tropical diseases and this congress was designed to raise awareness of the disease and to foster networks among people interested in improving the lot of patients affected by its devastating consequences. Interested persons include doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and priests up to and including an archbishop. The year 2010 is also of signal importance in sickle cell disease, because it marks the centenary anniversary since the first case known to modern medicine was described in western medical literature. But it was also an occasion to reflect that this was a disease that had been known among African societies since time immemorial. This point was made by Dr Felix Konotey-Ahulu who, during the opening ceremonies, was presented with a distinguished service award for his outstanding contributions to sickle cell disease patient care, research and education.

Today is the first full day of the conference and many important presentations were made about different aspects of sickle cell disease. Although sickle cell anemia has until recently been generally considered to be incurable, new therapies have been rolled out in recent years. The most important of these is treatment for what is one of the most distressing features of the disease, namely intermittent, recurrent attacks of excruciating pain affecting most areas of the body. This treatment consists of daily oral intake of a drug called Hydroxyurea. Many patients taking this drug have enjoyed a marked reduction in the frequency of their pain attacks and have been able to stay away from hospital emergency rooms and hospital admissions. Also, there was increased optimism among patients and caregivers when a researcher from New York reported that patients given a radical treatment consisting of bone marrow transplantation from a matched sibling donor had a greater than 85-90% chance of being completely cured of sickle cell disease.

Good news indeed and there is bound to be more which I will tell you about in my next posting.

Tell Fren Tru