Soon after, he and his colleagues obtained a federal grant from the Maternal Child Health Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a newborn screening program at Grady Memorial Hospital for sickle cell disease and a basic follow-up for hospital patients. These programs were immediately successful in saving lives and improving care. Emory physicians and Grady administrators joined a vocal parent-patient group in 1984 to petition the Georgia General Assembly for support of sickle cell anemia outpatient care. The center's mission is to provide 24-hour primary care and tertiary care for all Georgians with sickle cell disease. It currently serves 2,000 patients, about 1,200 of whom are treated on a regular basis.
Sickle cell screening for newborns is now a statewide program.
About 90 percent of children born with sickle cell anemia now survive to at least age 20. About 80,000 Americans have sickle cell disease. Until the mid 1970s, one-fourth of children born with sickle cell anemia died of overwhelming infections before age 5. Anemia associated with sickle cell causes fatigue and a susceptibility to infections. Red blood cells carrying the abnormal molecule known as hemoglobin S travel through the arterial circulation until they are deoxygenated.