sickle cell

About 100,000 people in the United States have sickle cell disease, and most of them are African-American. While there is effective care for the disease, it's difficult for patients to obtain.

The Republican health care bill failed in part because of opposition to shrinking Medicaid. An 11-year-old girl with sickle cell anemia went to Washington, D.C., to make sure that wouldn't happen.

The number of babies born with the life-threatening disease will climb by a third in the next 40 years, scientists say. The vast majority of sickle cell cases will occur in developing countries, which don't have the resources to treat deadly complications arising from the genetic disorder.