ABSTRACT
Sickle cell anemia was first diagnosed in 1910; when Elsie was diagnosed, African Americans knew little about the disease, and it frequently went undetected. Genetic screening for sickle cell anemia was almost nonexistent, diagnoses were difficult to obtain, medical treatment was limited, and persons diagnosed with the disease were often told to expect an early death. Despite the attention devoted to education and screening for sickle cell anemia during the past two decades, researchers have only recently begun to assess the psychosocial impact of the disease on people who have it and their families. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders marked by the presence of sickle cell hemoglobin, which causes normally round red blood cells to assume the shape of a "sickle." Sickle cell anemia is the most common SCD among African Americans; it is genetically transmitted when both of the parents have the sickle cell trait and pass it on to a child.
