Dying in the City of Blues (Response 2)

The obscurity behind sickle cell anemia stems from the fact that other disease took center stage around the same time. Diseases like tuberculosis, pellagra and the rise in child mortality had a higher priority in society because most of the medical funding and research dollars focused on the progression and treatment of these issues. When sickle cell infiltrated into society, it was assumed to be malaria since the symptoms of aches, pain and chills were common in malaria patients. But once cases of malaria began to decrease, sickle cell studies gained more publicity and credibility; “ Pauling's discovery immediately made sickle cell disease into a researcher's cash crop...”1 With new found visibility, sickle cell became a commodity and gave new opportunities for research funding and the addition of a sickle cell center. This center even disregarded Jim Crow laws by admitting black patients. The high profile status of sickle cell  also gained the attention of President Nixon and he made it one of his priorities along with the fight against cancer. Nixon’s efforts came with confused reactions specifically from the black community, “...even black Americans wondered why sickle cell disease should be assigned a special status among pathologies when other health problems were even more important in black communities.”2 This frustration stemmed from the fact that diseases like hypertension remained were ignored even “when essentially hypertension kills more Blacks in one year than Sickle Cell in twenty.”3 The concentration on certain diseases is also apparent today in the examples of Breast Cancer and HIV. It seems that diseases with the most visibility hold strong platforms within society because they provide more opportunities for research funding which rather unfortunate given the fact that more impactful diseases are left untouched.
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[1] Wailoo, Keith. Dying in the City of the Blues:

Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. (Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001), 115

[2] Wailoo, Keith. Dying in the City of the Blues:

Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. (Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001), 192

[3] Wailoo, Keith. Dying in the City of the Blues:

Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. (Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001), 195