Morbidity and mortality from sickle cell anemia is high during the first few years of life. Acute and life-threatening events such as severe anemia; hypoplastic crises induced by infection; overwhelming pneumococcal sepsis, pneumonia, or meningitis; sudden and massive splenic sequestration crises, and the more chronic debilitating complications affecting general health, growth, and development take their toll.1
Early diagnosis of afflicted infants serves a dual purpose: first, to ensure appropriate and adequate health care for homozygous patients; and second, to forewarn parents of the potential problems and hazards of having other affected children and to permit them to make intelligent and informed decisions with regard to future children through sensitive counseling. With the availability of improved and relatively safe techniques for antenatal detection of hemoglobinopathies,2 parents at risk should be provided with an accurate diagnosis at the earliest possible time. Screening programs created to test older children, adolescents, and