Clinical aspects of sickle cell disease in Nairobi children.

Children with sickle cell disease in Nairobi come from tribes living in malarial regions of Kenya. The clinical presentation and complications of this disease are described. The symptoms at onset are nonspecific but the typical features that follow are easy to recognize. Cardiac murmurs and persistently enlarged spleen in older children pose diagnostic challenges. Poor appetite and failure to thrive are common; so are school absenteeism due to crises and infection. The use of white blood cell counts to determine the presence of infection during crises is described.