Biree Andemariam, MD: Ongoing Concerns Related to COVID-19 and Sickle Cell

While major medical organizations have stepped up in a major way to provide guidance and disseminate information during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, even they are left unable to answer a multitude of questions posed by clinicians related to the disease and their respective specialties.

Among these organizations is the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA), who released some of the earliest care-based COVID-19 guidance in the form of a provider advisory in late March.

“We very quickly came to an agreement that one of the most important things we needed to do was to develop a set of advisories. One, for patients and families effected by sickle cell disease and also a companion healthcare advisory,” said Biree Andemariam, MD, chief medical officer of the SCDAA and associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health, in a recent interview with HCPLive®.

The nine-page document, which Andemariam noted is updated as new information becomes available, addresses topics including routine clinical care, management of acute sickle cell pain, treatment of COVID-19 in patients with sickle cell disease, and COVID-19 clinical trials involving patients with sickle cell disease.

In spite of this and the mountains of data released each passing week, a multitude of unanswered questions remains among patients and clinicians related to COVID-19 and sickle cell disease.

In an effort to learn more about the most pressing questions and concerns surrounding sickle cell disease and COVID-19, HCPLive® caught asked Andemariam these questions in a recent HCPLive interview.