Statistics

Sickle cell anemia is one of the most common genetic diseases in the country. More than 70,000 people in the US have the disease and more than 2 million people in the US carry the gene. African Americans are most commonly affected though. 1 In 12 African Americans carry the sickle cell trait. The explanation for this is that the disease originated in at least 4 places in Africa and in the Indian/Saudi Arabian subcontinent. 25% of West and Central Africans carry the sickle cell trait. And in Nigeria, 45,000 to 90,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year… The transatlantic slave trade was mainly responsible for introducing sickle cell disease to America. However, it had already spread to Southern Europe by the time of the slave trade. But sickle cell disease is now present in Portuguese, Spaniards, French Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, mainland Italians, Greeks, Turks and Cypriots. And found in most of the Near and Middle East Countries like Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen, India and Sri Lanka. As you can see, Sickle cell disease is not only a health problem for the US but international as well.