The New York Blood Center Will Test For Sickle Cell Disease

QUEENS, NY — September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month and to bring attention to sickle cell disease, the New York Blood Center will host blood drives that will offer free testing for the blood disorder.

In Queens, there are three upcoming blood drives that will test for sickle cell.

On Sept. 14, York College in Jamaica, located at 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, will be a site of a sickle cell blood drive from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The primary coordinator will be Jean Phelps, the CUNY campus’ director of Student Activities.

Queens Herald Community will have a bus mobile in Fresh Meadows at 65-15 164th St. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for its drive on Sept. 18. The coordinator will be Mary Shum.

The last drive in the World’s Borough will be held by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards’ Office in Kew Gardens on Sept. 20 in Kew Gardens at the atrium at 120-55 Queens Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Gina Bittner, the director of Health and Human Services at the BP’s Office, is the coordinator for the drive.

Blood drive times are subject to change.

“New York Blood Center is proud to be a leader in sickle cell disease research and to provide life-saving blood to our area’s hospitals to treat these patients who require frequent transfusions,” Andrea Cefarelli, senior executive vice president at New York Blood Center, said in a statement. “We hope this initiative will inspire New Yorkers to donate blood and get tested for sickle cell trait as these tests will allow donors to make more informed decisions regarding their health.”

NYBC expects that nearly 3,000 will be tested for sickle cell, which is a disease that impacts 10,000 New Yorkers, according to NYBC.

Sickle cell is a blood disorder where some blood cells are shaped like a sickle and that could cause pain (sickle cell crisis), fatigue and anemia, because of the lack of healthy blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit health and research organization. Approximately, 200,000 Americans have the disease.

People who inherit one sickle cell gene and one normal gene have sickle cell trait, and might not get the disease but they can pass the gene on to their children. Understanding one’s sickle cell status can help to make better decisions for an individual’s health and family, said New York Blood Center.

The disease is most common among African Americans and the NYBC is using its research to focus on preventing and treating complications, which include pain episodes and tissue injury, according to the center.

The center is developing novel strategies to help cure the disease through stem cell transplantation and gene therapy.

It hopes that the blood drive initiative will help to combat sickle cell disease and its complications by raising awareness about both the prevalence of the disease, the trait and the need for blood donations from people of color, according to the organization, which hopes that it can get blood transfusions particularly from Black people to help with the aforementioned therapies.

For information about blood drives that test for sickle cell outside of Queens visit donate.nybc.org.