Potential of point of care tests for newborn screening for sickle cell disease: Evaluation of HemotypeSC™ and sickle SCAN® in Tanzania.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an important cause of <5 mortality. In Tanzania, it is estimated up to 11 000 children are born with SCD annually, making this the fifth country with the highest SCD annual births worldwide. The biggest challenge of expanding the service of newborn screening for SCD as the national health intervention in Tanzania is due to the high cost of the currently used assays and lack of rapid screening methods.