Screening for Renal Disease

Background
Young children with SCA have a very high risk for septicemia and meningitis in the absence of appropriate prophylaxis. These infections result from defective or absent splenic function that typically has its onset in people with SCA early in the first year of life. Case fatality is high, and the risk is greatest in young people who lack humoral immunity against the specific pneumococcal serotype causing infection. People with HbSC and HbSb -thalassemia have a much lower incidence of life-threatening infection because their spleen function is normal or only minimally impaired during infancy. However, older children and adults with all SCD genotypes are at increased risk for invasive bacterial infection.