Hydoxyurea proves safe for African children with sickle-cell anemia
December 3rd, 2018“…..About 300,000 babies are born with the disease each year; about 75 percent of them are in Africa, and about 1 percent in the United States……Hydroxyurea has been used for decades in the United States and Europe. But some early animal studies made researchers fear it would make African children more susceptible to local infections, particularly malaria.
The new study followed 600 children in Angola, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo who were given the drug for more than two years.
As with children in wealthy countries, taking the drug daily also made it far less likely they would die or need a blood transfusion because of their sickle-cell disease. They were about half as likely to suffer bouts of severe pain, and somewhat less likely to get other infections.
In an unexpected twist, investigators discovered that the children were about half as likely to get malaria while using hydroxyurea as they had been before the trial started. The reasons are not known……”