Center for Education and Aid on Hemoglobinopathies – CEHMOB-MG

The Center for Education and Aid on Hemoglobinopathies (CEHMOB-MG) was set up in State of Minas Gerais (Brazil) in December 2004, with approval and funding from the Brazilian Ministry of Health. It stands for the merger of Minas Gerais’ wide-ranging, several-year long technical-scientific experience in diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and care provided to people with sickle cell disease as well as in research on hemoglobinopathies.

Sickle Cell disease affects particularly the black population and is regarded as one of the most frequent genetic disorders both in Brazil and in the world. Minas Gerais was the first Brazilian State to screen children for this disease and other hemoglobinopathies, owing to the establishment of the Neonatal Screening Program for Sickle Cell Disease in 1998.

CEHMOB aims at promoting comprehensive health-care services to sickle cell patients, by means of education, information and social support. Covering the whole State of Minas Gerais, it focuses both on informative and educative aspects of sickle cell disease and on training health professionals from both primary and emergency health units of the State.

To meet the purpose of professional education, CEHMOB-MG has offered several courses, seminars, meetings and teleconferences to health professionals throughout Minas Gerais, and it has also developed the “Care Protocol on Acute Events” to continuously record health professionals’ behavior in assisting patients with sickle cell disease.

CEHMOB-MG also builds up knowledge on sickle cell disease. Besides contributing with novel researches focusing on both clinical and biological aspects of the disease, CEHMOB-MG has also developed research on particular social and psychological aspects of sickle cell disease as a means to improve education and assistance to sickle cell patients in Brazil.

CEHMOB-MG is the result of a partnership among the following institutions: Brazilian Ministry of Health, Special Agency for Policies on Racial Equality (SEPPIR), Support Diagnosis Center of School of Medicine / Federal University of Minas Gerais (NUPAD/FM/UFMG), Minas Gerais Health Department, Minas Gerais Blood Bank Foundation (HEMOMINAS), Belo Horizonte Health Department, and a non-governmental organization of parents, friends and sickle cell patients (DREMINAS).

This partnership has allowed for better assistance to sickle cell patients, especially regarding services offered by the Brazilian Single Health System (SUS). It has also granted access to tests and medicines and assured personalized and multi-professional consultation. The partnership between CEHMOB-MG and DREMINAS has been particularly crucial, for it aims at promoting social care, a great concern of CEHMOB-MG.

Furthermore, aiming at granting the access of patients, family, students and health professionals to basic and advanced information on sickle cell disease and other hemoglobinopathies, a Call Center is fully operating at 0800-722-6500.