• Worldwide, sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of individuals being born with sickle cell disease.

• About 236 thousand babies are born with sickle cell disease each year.

• About 15 thousand babies are born with sickle cell disease each year.

• Because of its high prevalence, it is considered to be a condition of public health proportions.

• About 2 thousand babies are born with sickle cell disease each year.

• Because of the lower numbers, it is considered a rare disease in the U.S.

• The sickle cell mutation, the Sickle Gene (S), is thought to have occurred in a single individual in Africa.

• That Sickle Gene (S) was traced back 259 generations, or about 7,300 years ago!

• However, no one knew about this Sickle Gene (S) – or hemoglobin S – until Linus Pauling and his colleague discovered it in 1949.

Over thousands of years:

• People have moved due to natural migration.

• People were forcibly moved due to the transatlantic slave trade.

• People have intermingled.

• As a result, there are people of different races who can have the Sickle Gene (S).

Sickle cell disease is found in people who live in: