Description
Fifty years ago, it was the accepted wisdom within the medical fraternity worldwide that persons with sickle cell disease were unlikely to survive childhood and few would reach adult life. It was also a common misconception that the disease could not be identified at birth. Much has changed in the last half century, due in large part to the pioneering work of Graham and Beryl Serjeant who arrived in Jamaica from the UK in 1966 to work for a year at The University Hospital of the West Indies. That year continues fifty years later, and the greater knowledge on the management of sickle cell disease and methods for the early diagnosis has made Jamaica a pioneer serving large numbers of patients with limited resources – models of care widely utilized in India, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil.
In this book, Graham Serjeant places this contribution in context by telling the story of the development of services for patients with sickle cell disease, from 1967 until the present. He recalls the gradual documentation of the disease, the contrasts with descriptions from elsewhere, the setting up of clinics throughout Jamaica, the early establishment of newborn screening to study the disease from birth, and the Manchester Project to determine whether school students armed with knowledge of their haemoglobin genotype would be less likely to have children affected by the disease. Many discoveries were made along the way, and the management improved to the extent that survival was similar if not better than that in the United States. These developments are described in detail and written in accessible language, amply illustrated with photographs, which aid an understanding of the technical processes for the non-specialist reader.
Parallel with these advances were the improvements in physical facilities, pioneered largely by the Sickle Cell Trust (Jamaica) formed in 1986, which built a dedicated Sickle Cell Clinic and an Education Centre for Sickle Cell Disease. The Jamaican work has been recognized by the British government with the honour to Graham Serjeant of the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1981. The work has also been recognized by the Jamaican government first with the National Honour of the Order of Distinction, Commander Class in 1995, and the Order of Jamaica in 2015.
