Portadores da doença falciforme: reflexos da história da população negra no acesso à saúde

Sickle cell disease is the most prevalent genetic disorder in Brazil; according to the PNTN – Programa  Nacional de Triagem Neonatal (National Neonatal Screening Program), approximately 3,500 (three  thousand, fie hundred) babies with haemoglobin disorders are born each year that is to say 1/1,000  live-born in Brazil. Since the high degree of its incidence, it is necessary to observe how the access to the  health is given to patients with this disease, and the diffiulties that afflct this population segment and  the effectiveness of existing public policies to confront this kind of genetic hemoglobinopath should be  analyzed. Through descriptive and explanatory methodology, it was found that the social segment affected  by this disease is historically associated with people of African descent, due to its mutant origin in the  African continent in response to the spread of malaria, fact that combines the disease with the factors of  historical discrimination against the Black population. Sickle cell disease, in certain cases, was used as a  basis for exclusion of Black people from society, as an argument for racial segregation in the United States  and as a basis for the idea of whitening the Brazilian population.