Promoting access of hydroxyurea to sickle cell disease individuals: Time to make it an essential medicine [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Autor: Irene Kida, Paschal Rugajo, Hamu Mlyuka, Nathanael Sirili, Julie Makani, Agnes Jonathan, Lulu Chirande, Hilda Tutuba, Manase Kilonzi, Emmanuel Balandya
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: F1000Research, Vol 11 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2046-1402
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.111300.1
Popis: Hydroxyurea (HU) alone has the potential to prevent one out of every three deaths due to sickle cell disease (SCD) and almost all forms of disabilities caused by SCD. However, in Tanzania, only one out of every six registered SCD patients in the SPARCO-Tanzania Sickle Cell Cohort use HU. We conducted studies to understand factors influencing utilization of HU in Tanzania and discovered that among the reason for low utilization of HU include HU is classified as anticancer medication, only hematologists are supposed to prescribe HU, limited HU prescription to only National and Specialized hospitals, a special permit is required to access HU using National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) scheme and limited importation and absence of local manufacturing of HU limit availability of this important drug in Tanzania. Therefore, with this brief, the government should allow prescription of HU to the district hospitals level, should allow all clinicians with a minimum of a Bachelor of Medicine to prescribe HU, and accessibility of HU through NHIF should be friendly.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals