Sickle cell patients find a brand New World.

As recently as the 1970s, sickle cell anemia patients had little hope of living past their teen years and little relief from painful crises. With the 1980s came the use of prophylactic penicillin to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality from infection in sickle cell youngsters. One of the sickle cell breakthroughs of the 1990s is the use of hydroxyurea for sickle cell treatment in adult patients. In the future, gene therapy may be the answer to the complex problems sickle cell anemia presents.