Nigeria has the highest number of children living with sickle cell disease of any country in the world, with an estimated 1.5 million children under the age of 15 affected, according to a major new study published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, one of the world’s foremost peer-reviewed medical journals.
The study, which draws on data from 40 research studies conducted across 22 African countries, found that nearly nine million children across sub-Saharan Africa were living with sickle cell disease (SCD) in 2023. Of that total, approximately 1.17 million were infants and around 2.75 million were children under the age of five, the group considered most vulnerable to early death without treatment. Nigeria’s burden significantly outpaces other heavily affected countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.
The research was led by Professor Davies Adeloye, Professor of Public Health at Teesside University in the United Kingdom and Director of the International Society of Global Health (ISoGH). It represents the most comprehensive country-level mapping of childhood sickle cell disease on the continent to date.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder present from birth in which abnormally shaped red blood cells obstruct blood flow, causing severe pain, organ damage, and life-threatening complications. Early intervention through newborn screening, penicillin prophylaxis, routine vaccinations, malaria prevention, and the medicine hydroxyurea can prevent most complications and deaths at low cost. In Nigeria, however, access to these services remains severely limited, and many children are not diagnosed until after serious harm has occurred, while others are never identified at all.
“Nigeria now stands at the centre of the global sickle cell crisis. With over 1.5 million children affected, the scale is enormous, but so is the opportunity to act,” Professor Adeloye said. “Newborn screening and early treatment are effective, affordable, and can be delivered through existing health systems. If Nigeria prioritises sickle cell disease within its national health agenda and integrates care into routine maternal and child health services, we could save hundreds of thousands of young lives and significantly reduce avoidable deaths.”
The researchers call for urgent action at every level, including the expansion of newborn screening programmes, broader access to essential medicines and vaccines, the integration of sickle cell care into primary healthcare services, increased domestic and international investment, and stronger data surveillance systems. The authors conclude that even modest gains in early screening and treatment in high-burden countries could produce transformative improvements in child survival.
