A day symposium “Fifty years of Rhesus Disease Prophylaxis; Aligning with the Global efforts”, organized by the Nigerian Rhesus Solution Initiative (RSI) and held at the Sickle Cell Foundation Center in Lagos on 15 August, brought together local and international medical experts to celebrate the anniversary and discuss possible future improvements of care in Nigeria. The event was supported by Columbia University, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and by Kedrion Biopharma, among others.
Through a spokesman, Nigerian Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, informed that the Government is evaluating the inclusion of blood testing in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which will result in a simple and relatively cheap solution to the problem of Rh disease diagnosis.
Mrs Jemilat Olufunmilayo Banire has created and leads the Rhesus Solution Initiative to identify and protect Rh negative women in Nigeria. So far, the organization has donated more than 45,000 Anti-D injections, an outstanding achievement that has been praised by both Prof Adewole and by Prof Alvin Zipursky, Co-Chair of the Consortium for Universal Rh disease Elimination (CURhE), which was represented at the symposium by Prof Isaac Odome from the SickKids Hospital.
Kedrion, which was present at the conference, is investigating innovative purchase solutions to make its Anti-D products more affordable for women in need.
