Why This Matters
Sickle cell disease begins doing damage from birth. The warped, crescent-shaped red blood cells it produces start blocking blood vessels in infancy and early childhood, causing painful crises, strokes, silent brain injuries, kidney damage, and progressive organ failure before a child is old enough to describe their symptoms. Most disease-modifying therapy has historically waited until patients were older, leaving the youngest children to absorb years of preventable damage before intervention became possible.
