Lessons identified from initiating a thalassaemia programme in a conflict setting: a case study from northeast Syria

Conflict and Health

Case Study

Deirdre Foley¹  Maartje Hoetjes²  Sally MacVinish²  Harriet Roggeveen²  Crystal van Leeuwen²  Yoshihiro Aoki³ 

[1] Department of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland;Médecins Sans Frontières, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan;

关键词: Thalassaemia;    Syria;    Conflict;    Medical programming;    Iron chelation therapy;    Blood transfusion;    Humanitarian;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13031-023-00503-2

 received in 2022-07-27, accepted in 2023-01-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThalassaemia affects many families in Northeast Syria, an area devastated by over a decade of conflict which has significantly impacted their health system. People with thalassaemia require holistic multidisciplinary care for the clinical complications of thalassaemia. The risks of thalassaemia treatment include blood-borne viral infections secondary to unsafe transfusion, increased vulnerability to serious bacterial infection following splenectomy, and complications of both iron overload and iron chelation therapy. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provided outpatient thalassaemia care programmes in northeast Syria between April 2017 October 2019 in a complex conflict context challenged by population displacement, the destruction of medical facilities, and periods of insecurity.MethodsWe performed a secondary descriptive analysis of the thalassaemia cohort data to describe basic clinical and demographic characteristics of the patient population. A desk review of internal and publicly available documents was supplemented by informal interviews with MSF staff to describe and analyse the programmatic approach.Case descriptionMSF delivered programmes with thalassaemia investigations, provision of blood transfusion, iron chelation therapy, and psychosocial support. Thalassemia programmes were novel for the organisation and operational learning took place alongside service implementation. Lessons were identified on equipment procurement and the requirements for the implementation of vital investigations (including ferritin testing), to inform clinical decision making. Lessons included the importance of supply planning for sufficient blood products to meet diverse clinical needs in a conflict area, so those with thalassaemia have continued access to blood products among the competing priorities. Iron chelation therapy met a large need in this cohort. Adapted protocols were implemented to balance social factors, hygiene considerations, toxicity, tolerability, and adherence to therapy. Wider service needs included considerations for family planning advice and services, continuity of care and patient access through decentralised services or laboratory access, psychosocial support, and improved data collection including quality of life measurements to understand the full impact of such programmes.ConclusionsAlthough this type of programming was not “routine” for the organisation, MSF demonstrated that life-sustaining thalassaemia care can be provided in complex conflict settings. International non-governmental organisations can consider this care possible in similar contexts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023