**3. Material and method**

*Human Blood Group Systems and Haemoglobinopathies*

their identities, following the effects of globalization [14, 26].

are all also patients of the traditional therapists.

priest are consulted at the same time. This system of "round care" [23] is one that perfectly summarizes the therapeutic path of most African families in sub-Saharan Africa. At each source, they seek the healing of a specific aspect of the child's suffering. The quests for meaning of the child's illness, ancestral protection and reconciliation with the ancestors lead parents to traditional healers. With the priest, the pastor or the Imam, families seek the divine therapy to ensure protection from God. They usually do this because they yearn for the healing of the child under the mercy of God. With the medical doctor, they seek the somatic healing of the child. These families are part of a permanent search for identity reconstruction [24, 25]. The identities of Africans remain very complex as they continually attempt to find

The traditional treatment of sickle cell anemia is based on cultural representations of this disease that people have. It does not aim to repair physiological disorders. It focuses on restoring social order by reconciling the patient and their groups with their social and supernatural environments [14]. This therapy considers the sick child as a messenger, a person who talks about the transgressions of ancestral norms by a member of his family or the persecution of his family by a wizard. This is the reason why parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and cousins of the patient

African families have retained certain intrinsic cultural values such as polygamy and the maintenance of family life through the births of several children. They have also opened up to modernity by gradually applying family planning practices. In Cameroonian families, the cultural tradition is neither past nor "outdated" [14]. The behaviors of the subjects are always marked by identifiable traditional elements. These families have neither resisted nor surrendered to modernity. These are simultaneously modern and traditional families, not necessarily modern or traditional. In Cameroon, there are several types of families; nuclear families, extended families, polygamous families, monogamous families, etc. [27]. These categories reflect the diversity and complexity of family dynamics in Cameroon,

A child's illness has repercussions on their siblings who experience ambivalent feelings towards them. These relate specifically to shame, guilt, love, hatred, complicity, rivalry, anguish and the desire for the death of the sick child [28]. In order not to aggravate the suffering of their parents and that of the patient, brothers and

Studies on sickle cell anemia patients indicate the psychological suffering of sick children and their parents [9, 14, 30]. The experiences of their siblings are often studied from the parents' stories. Overprotection of the child causes parents to progressively neglect caring for their other children [31]. The latter experience emotional breakdowns resulting in feelings of rejection, marginalization and exclusion on the part of parents and the extended family [32, 33]. They express jealousy towards the patient that they designate as the main person responsible for crises that destabilize the family financially and emotionally [34]. They feel guilty for having negative thoughts such as jealousy towards the patient; they consider themselves "bad siblings" [35]. They experience, at the same time, the desire for the death of the patient and the fear of this death [36]. Their experiences are usually influenced by parental intrusions in their relationships with the sick child because they are

**2.5 Cameroonian families oscillating between modernity and tradition**

and potentially the lives of children confronted by a sick sibling.

**2.6 The experiences of the brothers and sisters of sick children**

sisters often attempt to prevent them from suffering [29].

**42**
