Introduction:

Sickle cell anemia is an autosomal recessive genetic disease. It is considered the most common hereditary disease in Cuba. The Cuban sickle cell anemia prevention Program is based on the screening of all pregnant women by hemoglobin electrophoresis. This program has been applied since 1983.

Objective:

To describe the impact of the Cuban sickle cell anemia prevention Program during the period 1987-2021.

Methods:

An observational study was conducted on a series of cases of pregnant women belonging to the province of Granma in the period from 1987 to 2021. Municipal and provincial statistics were reviewed. Variables such as carrier frequency, hemoglobin variants, coverage of studied spouses, molecular prenatal diagnosis, and positive cases were analyzed. Summary measures such as absolute and relative frequencies were used for statistical analysis.

Results:

The carrier frequency in the province was found to be 3.9%. The most common variant is Hb AS. Sixty-two percent of spouses were screened. Molecular diagnosis was performed in 70.3%, of which 21.3% were positive and 69% opted for voluntary abortion.

Conclusions:

The Cuban Sickle Cell Disease Prevention Program has had a great impact on halting the number of carriers of the disease, the frequency of prenatal molecular diagnoses, and the number of patients with sickle cell anemia in the period 1987-2021.

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