INCIDENCE OF SICKLEMIA IN THE NEWBORN NEGRO INFANT

Abstract

ALTHOUGH sickle cell anemia is a hereditary and congenital disease, it is seldom diagnosed in infancy and is usually not considered in the differential diagnosis of neonatal anemia and/or jaundice.¹ Of the several studies on the incidence of sicklemia in the Negro,² only one in the American literature to our knowledge includes an appreciable number of cases of newborn infants.³ Even here, unfortunately, the day of life on which the test for sickling was done is not stated. Because of the paucity of data on the incidence of the sickle cell trait in the early days of life and as a part of a long study of sickle cell disease in a group of persons from infancy to adolescence, we submit our findings. METHOD Two hundred and fifty-seven full term and 5 premature Negro infants selected at random from 934 live births in Freedmen's Hospital between Aug.