Researchers found that treatment with hydroxyurea at currently approved doses for sickle cell anemia leads to a significant drop in total sperm count in men.

The study, “Adverse effect of hydroxyurea on spermatogenesis in patients with sickle cell anemia after six months of treatment,” was published in the journal Blood.

Progress in the treatment of sickle cell anemia (SCA) has allowed patients to live longer lives, reach reproductive age, and have children. One of the main reasons for the improvement in mortality and morbidity in patients with SCA is treatment with hydroxyurea.

The Boston school system has agreed to recognize sickle cell disease — which affects millions of Americans and is more common among blacks and Latinos — as a disability that interferes with a student’s education, the Globe has learned.

Students with the disease, a painful disorder that causes red blood cells to deform into a sickle shape and stick to vessel walls, often miss numerous days of school and fall behind on their class work due to hospitalization or side effects from their medication.

In the voluntary deal that Superintendent Tommy Chang signed with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last month, the district said it will provide supplemental instruction to students with the disease, offer special accommodations, and work to ensure students’ educations do not suffer.

The Board of Directors for Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (SCDAA) announces the hiring of Beverley Francis-Gibson as its 5th President & CEO in its 45 year history. After an extensive national search, Francis-Gibson emerged as the best fit for the organization. She brings over 20 years of diverse experience as a nonprofit leader, and most recently served as the Executive Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Howard County (NAMI HC) in Columbia, Maryland. Over her career, Francis-Gibson has led organizations in achieving their mission, vision and strategic priorities.

Francis-Gibson received both her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations & Broadcasting and her master’s degree in Industrial & Community Counseling from Eastern Kentucky University.

“SCDAA is the largest nonprofit advocacy group in America organized to advance initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life for those affected by sickle cell disease, and I am very much looking forward to working with SCDAA’s Board of Directors, staff, and membership,” said Francis-Gibson.

The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (SCDAA) was awarded $2.9 million annually for the next four years from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) for the Sickle Cell Disease Newborn Screening Follow-up Program in June 2017. With these funds, SCDAA is continuing its efforts to establish the national infrastructure to ensure that individuals diagnosed with sickle cell disease (SCD) receive appropriate care coordination and follow-up services including counselling, education materials and access to a medical home.

SCDAA has identified 16 community based organizations (CBOs) in fifteen states, to receive $2,033,080, 70% of its 2017 HRSA grant award, to support them with the capacity to identify, educate and link patients to care in 15 states across America.

Camp Cell-A-Bration is a week-long camp for kids aged 6-14 with sickle cell disease. Many of our children with sickle cell disease have suffered strokes, jaundice, pain crisis, chronic blood transfusions, surgeries, acute chest syndrome, and damage to their internal organs. Although these children battle this life-threatening disease every day, we want to make sure they enjoy being KIDS!

Camp Cell-A-Bration will be held virtually this year from Monday, August 2nd, 2021 to Friday, August 6th, 2021.

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Gamida Cell, a leading cellular and immune therapeutics company, today announced two presentations from its NiCord programs in high-risk hematologic malignancies and sickle cell disease (SCD) at the 2018 BMT Tandem Meetings, held from February 21 – 25 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, UT.

Details for the presentations are as follows:

-NiCord Single Unit Expanded Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation (UCBT): Final Results of a Multicenter Phase I/II Trial; Mitchell Horwitz, M.D., Session G: Alternative Donor / Immune Reconstitution, Feb. 23, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. MT in Ballroom I

-A Novel Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD): Co-Transplantation of NiCord [Ex-Vivo Expanded Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Progenitor Cells with Nicotinamide] and an Unmanipulated Unrelated UCB Graft Leads to Successful Engraftment and Cure of Severe SCD; Suhag H. Parikh, M.D., Poster Session 1: Cord Blood, Feb. 21, 2018 at 6:45 p.m. MT in Hall E