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Credit
Sickle cell anaemia [in Nigerian children]. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Sickle cell anaemia [in Nigerian children].
- Date:
- 1956
- Videos
Available online
About this work
Description
Explains the medical genetics and portrays the clinical manifestations of sickle cell anaemia as seen in Yoruba children of the village of Ilobe, Western Nigeria, where in the mid-1950s about 1 child in 64 was born with sickle cell anaemia. Signs and symptoms shown include marked enlargement of the heart and liver; slight cranial and facial deformities; deformed hip joints; ossification of the lower legs; congestion of the lungs; deterioration of the spleen; infarction of the legs, and chronic haemolytic anaemia. Also frankly discusses the very modest results of treatment with iron and liver extracts and the ultimately fatal outcome of the disease. 3 segments.
Publication/Creation
Nigeria : Federal Information Service, 1956.
Physical description
1 encoded moving image (14.30 min.) : sound, black and white
Duration
00:14:33
Copyright note
Wellcome Trust; Wellcome Trust 2008
Terms of use
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CC-BY-NC
Language note
In English
Creator/production credits
Film Unit of the Federal Information Service, Nigeria, with the West African Council for Medical Research
Contents
Segment 1 Over various shots of village life in western Nigeria, the narrator explains how sickle cell anaemia is inherited by children from their parents, as well as the history and migration of the disease from its original source in the Arabian peninsula. He tells how 1 in every 64 children will inherit the disease, and an illustration shows the possible genetic outcomes of a typical marriage in the village. Inside a hospital, a doctor checks the knee reflex of a child. Three children sit on a bed and are described as examples of the physical traits of the disease. They have bossed foreheads and a furrow down the middle of the scalp, as well an epicanthic fold in the eyelid. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:05:03:22 Length: 00:05:03:22
Segment 2 The narrator explains how a slight degree of finger clubbing is often found in sufferers, again showing children in the hospital as examples. The eye membranes are also usually pale. An xray of a skull is shown, and the shape explained. An xray of the chest is shown, to show expansion of the lungs, and also one of the hands. New bone growth is affected by the disease, and a child is used to demonstrate limitation of movement as a result. Lesions in the skin are also shown. The heart is enlarged and the lungs congested, and the chest xray shows cardiac enlargement. Time start: 00:05:03:22 Time end: 00:09:20:04 Length:00:04:16:11
Segment 3 The liver is also much enlarged. A series of naked children walk in front of the camera, with their livers and spleens drawn on their stomachs, to indicate swelling. The liver and spleen become increasingly damaged as the child grows up, with the former increasing in size, and the latter decreasing. A medical chart sets out the 'Mean Haematological Indices on Admission', and a second chart shows the results after 1-3 months treatment with parenteral iron and liver therapy. The narrator says there was only slight improvement. The bone marrow may become exhausted, and a graph shows how height is stunted. The narrator reflects how sad it is that these children will probably all succumb to the disease if a cure is not found. Time start: 00:09:20:04 Time end: 00:14:32:23 Length: 00:05:12:19