September is National Sickle Cell Month

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects people of many racial and ethnic groups. In the U.S., 90,000 to 100,000 people, mainly Blacks or African Americans have SCD. The disease occurs among about 1 of every 500 Black or African-American births and among about 1 out of every 36,000 Hispanic-American births.

SCD can be a life-threatening condition and social, economic, cultural, and geographical barriers often limit access to comprehensive care. Advances in patient advocacy preventative screenings, as well as access to resources, have increased the quality of life and life expectancy of people with SCD.

LifeScience Moment: Ether was first used as a surgical anesthetic

On Sept. 30, 1846, ether was first used as a surgical inhalation anesthetic by William Morton to extract a tooth from merchant Eben Frost at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Crawford Long, an American physician and pharmacist in Jefferson, Georgia, used ether for the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove a tumor from the neck of James M. Venable. Long subsequently removed a second tumor from Venable, and later used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. The results of these trials were published in 1848 in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal.

It's a Small World
	Colorized scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles (blue). Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Science Quote

"True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain."