What is the epidemiology of sickle cell disease?

 

Sickle cell disease is a diverse disease all over the world. SCD has recently been recognized as a problem of major public-health significance by the World Health Organization. To continue, 70 percent of sufferers of sickle cell disease live in Africa. Sickle cell disease is found more commonly in people who are descendants from the Middle Eastern, Indian, Mediterranean, and African heritages. This is because those geographic regions are most prone to malaria. The gene variant for SCD is related to malaria.

 

Therefore, wherever malaria occurs there is sickle cell disease. It is also believed that people who carry the sickle cell trait are less likely to have severe forms of malaria. It is estimated that sickle cell disease will affect 90,000 to 100,000 American. Sickle cell disease affects a large percentage of people in Central America as well as significant numbers in South America such as Brazil, and the Caribbean. Sickle cell disease is the most frequently occurring genetic disease on the earth.