Chronic fatigue and weakness, dizziness, swollen limbs, sudden excruciating pain in the chest, backs, legs and arms, uncontrollable painful erections or priapism, tissue necrosis, organ damage, increased susceptibility to bacterial infection, death at a young age from stroke, heart attack or organ failure. These are but a few of the awful symptoms of sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia. Resulting from a defective gene that causes sufferers blood cells to collapse into a

distinctive crescent shape, this inherited disorder afflicts nearly 8 million people worldwide and

kills over 34,000 every year, with most sufferers hailing from or tracing their ancestry

to tropical regions such as sub-Sahar and Africa.

As a result, sickle cell anemia is often

seen as a predominantly black disease, tragically affecting access to care for millions of

sufferers. But while this affliction causes untold suffering worldwide condemning millions to a lifetime of pain,

and in many cases an early grave, there is a silver lining, an unexpected evolutionary advantage

that has allowed

sickle cell anemia to persist for thousands of years. So join us as we take a deep dive into

one of the world's most fascinating, yet overlooked diseases. In the regions where it is endemic,

sickle cell disease has been known about for centuries, being a major cause of child mortality.

Indeed, among the Igbo people of Nigeria,

the disease became closely associated with Ogbanjis, literally children who come and go,

evil spirits thought to possess children and bring ill fortune upon families. However, it was not

until the 1870s that the symptoms came to the attention of Western medicine, and not until

the 20th

century that it was recognized as a distinct disease.

In 1904, one Walter Clement Noel, a 20-year-old dentistry student from the Caribbean

island of Grenada, checked into the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago.

For three years, Noel had been suffering from persistent anemia and bouts of severe limb,

chest, and abdominal pain,

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