Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, Expert in Sickle Cell Disease, Dies at 76

In his native Ghana, Dr. Ohene-Frempong set up a pilot application to give screening for sickle cell sickness among newborns in the southern city of Kumasi. It was the very first this kind of system in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to identifying young children with the ailment, the software referred them to specialised clinics that offered treatments like antibiotics to protect against bacterial infections, schedule immunizations and a drug, hydroxyurea, that can minimize the risk of problems from sickle cell.

Kwaku Ohene-Frempong was born on March 13, 1946, in Kukurantumi, in japanese Ghana, to Kwasi Adde Ohene and Adwoa Odi Boafo. His father was a cocoa farmer and a well known member of a royal family.

Kwaku attended a boarding university, Prempeh University, then went to Yale College, the place he majored in biology and was captain of the observe and industry team, environment indoor and outside records in the high hurdles. Though a scholar, he fulfilled Janet Williams, who was attending Cornell College. They married on June 6, 1970, a person 7 days just after they had both of those graduated.

Dr. Ohene-Frempong claimed in an job interview in 2019 that he initial observed out about sickle cell when he and some mates attended a lecture about the ailment at Yale. As he sat listening, he reported, he abruptly recognized the condition: It was in his relatives but had long gone undiagnosed. A single of his cousins had the signs or symptoms and died at 14.

“He was in discomfort,” he claimed of his cousin. “His eyes have been pretty yellow, and he was incredibly skinny.”

Dr. Ohene-Frempong ongoing on to medical faculty at Yale, then went to New York Hospital/Weill Cornell Healthcare Heart in Manhattan for his residency. He analyzed pediatric hematology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia just before shifting to the Tulane University Faculty of Medication in New Orleans, in which he was associate professor of pediatrics.

In his six several years at Tulane, he set up the Tulane Sickle Mobile Heart of Southern Louisiana, a professional medical care facility, and served the point out overall health office create a newborn-screening system for the disease.

Dr. Ohene-Frempong returned to Children’s Healthcare facility in 1986 and remained there for 30 many years ahead of leaving to work whole time in Ghana, at the Kumasi Center for Sickle Cell Condition, a study and treatment method center. He was nonetheless primarily based there when he returned to Philadelphia for cancer treatment method.