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Article History

Received: 20 October 2025

Accepted: 22 February 2026

First Online: 3 March 2026

Declarations

:

: This study analysed secondary, aggregated spatial data and health facility locations. No individual-level health information was used. District-level HbS aggregates were derived from two published national datasets: the Uganda Sickle Surveillance Study (US3) reported by Ndeezi et al., an open-access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives licence, and the national newborn screening and genetic epidemiology dataset described by Kiyaga, which is publicly available. The national health facility master and newborn screening hub lists were provided in deidentified form by the Uganda Ministry of Health and Central Public Health Laboratories. Malaria parasite prevalence rasters were obtained from the Malaria Atlas Project under their standard terms of use with appropriate attribution. The protocol for this secondary analysis received ethical approval and a waiver of written informed consent from the Makerere University School of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (Mak-SOMREC-2024–854) and was registered with the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST HS5714ES). The waiver reflected minimal risk and the impracticability of obtaining individual consent for national, retrospective datasets. All procedures followed institutional policies, national regulations and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

: Not applicable. The study does not include individual patient data.

: The authors declare no competing interests.