Almost about the time the US was publishing stories of how a new gene therapy may be the solution to the sickle cell disease, Tanzania was coming to grips with the death of ten children whose bodies were recently discovered with their teeth and private parts missing.

Gene therapy for sickle cell sufferers

In Boston, researchers at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center have developed a gene therapy that they hope would be the cure to the sickle cell disease.

The sickle cell disease is a disorder that causes the red blood cells, which are normally round, to become misshapen, like the shape of a sickle, and break down especially under low oxygen stress.

The red blood cells are responsible for delivering oxygen to other cells in the body through its hemoglobin molecule. For sickle cell sufferers, however, the hemoglobin is atypical and is referred to as hemoglobin S. This is what gives the red blood cells the sickle shape, causing them to break down prematurely and sometimes leading to anemia.

Anemia which is generally referred to as the lack of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin can lead to shortness of breath and fatigue. But it is not the greatest challenge sickle cell sufferers face.

The sickle cell is stiff and inflexible, unlike healthy red blood cells. Sometimes, because of their shape and inflexible nature, they can block small blood vessels in tissues or organs, depriving them of oxygen. This would cause a person suffering from the disease pain and if the sickle cells do not stop obstructing the flow of oxygen, it can lead to damage of the affected organ.

The gene therapy developed by the center involves the removal of blood stem cells from a sickle cell patient. These blood stem cells then “undergo months of gene modification to induce the production of healthy fetal hemoglobin which is found in newborns and does not sickle.”

These gene-modified cells are then infused into the bodies of the patient. To achieve this, the patient would have to be hospitalized for one or two months and undergo chemotherapy.

This treatment has been successfully carried out on an adult, Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Johnson and doctors are optimistic that it would be a final cure to the life-threatening disease. They are hoping to test it on more adults, before rolling it out to teenagers and children.

Meanwhile, in Africa

Kidnapped children found dead and women afraid to wear pants.

In this article, CNN reports that 10 kidnapped Tanzanian children, some as young as 7 years were found dead with their private parts and teeth cut off.

Tanzania’s deputy health minister, Faustine Ndugulile said that the killings are linked to witchcraft practices as herbalists ask people seeking to get rich via money rituals to get human parts for the sacrifices. He also stressed that the killings are not related to the ritual killings of albinos in the country, a moot point since albinos are killed for their body parts which these same herbalists use to make charms and magic potions.

In Malawi, albinos are actively hunted for their bones and other body parts, as locals believe that their bones contain gold and their body parts would bring them happiness, good luck and yes, wealth.

As for Nigeria, we do not kill our albinos. Instead, we have resorted to robbing girls and women of their panties for ritual purposes. In fact, it has been reported that if these men stop you and you are not wearing any panties, they’ll give you new pants to wear for a few minutes after which they will take them back from you.

Where did we go wrong, you might wonder. Why are we so bad that we actively seek to end life instead of preserving it?

We might argue that it is the poverty prevalent in a lot of African countries that has forced them indulge in practices such as the ones mentioned above. Or we can say that those who kill groups of people they regard as vulnerable do so out of ignorance. But how true are these assertions?

How ignorant are we that we do not know that taking the life of another person is wrong? And how poor are we that we stupidly believe that the path of money rituals, and ultimately the harming of another person is the quickest way to abundant wealth?

In the space of less than 48 hours, two countries in two different continents have reported different information about their citizens. Sadly, while one talks about the preservation of life, one talks about its termination. Africa needs to wake up. Back home, we say that even if people call you a bastard, you who know yourself should not act like one. The West tends to label us as barbaric ignorants. We know we are not, and we need to stop acting like one.
https://qwenu.com/2019/01/30/was-africa-always-this-bad-a-tale-of-two-cities/