Sickle cell anemia was first identified in 1910 by Dr. James Herrick. It is a genetic condition that causes abnormal red blood cells, leading to low-oxygen blood and moderate to severe pain. Researchers have since discovered its relationship to oxygen, genetics, and hemoglobin, and continue to search for effective treatments and cures.
While sickle cell anemia, a genetic condition that causes abnormal red blood cells, has likely been around for millennia, the history of scientific understanding of the condition began relatively recently. In this sense, the history of sickle cell disease began in 1910, when the condition was first identified by medical researchers. In the decades since, researchers have broadened their understanding of the condition, discovering, for example, its relationship to oxygen, genetics and hemoglobin. In the early 21st century, the history of sickle cell disease continues to be written as medical experts seek treatments and even cures for the condition.
Sickle cell anemia is an abnormality in hemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells that is responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body. The abnormal structure of hemoglobin in those with the condition causes normally round red blood cells to take on a crescent shape. In turn, these misshapen cells can cause a variety of problems. They can lodge in blood vessels, causing moderate to severe pain, and they also tend to disintegrate much more quickly than normal red blood cells, leading to low-oxygen blood. Sickle cell anemia is genetic and occurs only in those who have inherited the sickle cell trait from both parents.
Indian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean people can suffer from sickle cell disease, but it most often affects those of African descent. Indeed, many African tribal languages have a word for the condition, suggesting that it has been around for many generations. Its causes would remain unknown, however, until the early 20th century.
The medical history of sickle cell disease began in 1910, when an American doctor named James Herrick used a microscope to study the blood cells of a Caribbean man who was suffering from muscle pain and lethargy. Dr. Herrick found that the man’s red blood cells showed an abnormal shape. When he published his findings, he referred to the cells as “sickle-shaped,” thus giving the condition its name.
In the decades that followed Dr. Herrick’s discovery, researchers began to reconstruct the pathology of the disease. A team of doctors determined that the condition caused low blood oxygen levels in 1927, while two separate researchers published work showing that it is hereditary in 1949. Two scientists, Dr. Linus Pauling and Dr. Harvey Itano, established in 1951 that a hemoglobin abnormality is responsible for the sickle shape of red blood cells.
From the mid-20th century onward, the history of sickle cell disease largely involves the search for effective treatments and cures for the condition. In the 1920s it was discovered that a cure could be had with a bone marrow transplant, which replaces abnormal cells with normal red blood cells. Because this procedure is extremely invasive and may not be successful, however, scientists continue to search for a satisfactory cure. In the 1980s, researchers discovered that a drug called hydroxyurea could significantly reduce the pain often associated with the disease.
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