Awareness Month

Sickle Cell Awareness Month

September 1 – 30, 2026 Recurs yearly

Young adult living with sickle cell disease enjoying an ordinary outdoor moment with friends, representing inclusion, resilience and quality of life.

2026 Theme

"Closing the Survival Gap: Equity in Sickle Cell Disease Care"

Campaign Representation

Officially represented by the Burgundy Ribbon.

Campaign Description

Focuses on improving long-term management, reducing complications, and increasing awareness of this inherited blood disorder that disproportionately affects people of African descent.

Theme Focus

The 2026 theme focuses on addressing the unequal health outcomes experienced by people living with sickle cell disease (SCD) by improving access to timely diagnosis, effective treatment, comprehensive care, supportive services and equitable health systems.

The theme is particularly strong because it moves the conversation beyond simply "raising awareness." It asks why people with SCD do not always have the same opportunity to receive appropriate care and achieve better outcomes.

Key Priorities

  • Close gaps in access to diagnosis and screening, including newborn screening and reliable genotype testing.
  • Improve access to comprehensive sickle cell care, from childhood through adulthood.
  • Expand access to effective treatments and disease-modifying therapies.
  • Improve early recognition and management of complications.
  • Reduce preventable illness and premature deaths.
  • Address geographical, financial and health-system barriers to care.
  • Reduce stigma, discrimination and misconceptions surrounding SCD.
  • Support mental health and quality of life, not just physical disease management.
  • Strengthen healthcare-worker knowledge and capacity to provide evidence-based SCD care.
  • Support research and innovation, including development and equitable availability of new and potentially curative therapies.
  • Include people living with SCD, families and caregivers in decisions about care and policy.
  • Promote health equity, ensuring that where someone lives or their ability to pay does not determine the quality of care they receive.

Key Concepts

  • Sickle cell disease
  • Sickle cell anemia
  • Sickle cell trait
  • Hemoglobin S
  • Inherited blood disorder
  • Genotype
  • Newborn screening
  • Genetic counseling
  • Health equity
  • Healthcare access
  • Survival gap
  • Comprehensive care
  • Vaso-occlusive crisis
  • Pain
  • Anemia
  • Infection
  • Stroke
  • Acute chest syndrome
  • Organ damage
  • Hydroxyurea
  • Disease-modifying therapy
  • Blood transfusion
  • Mental health
  • Stigma
  • Discrimination
  • Quality of life
  • Genetic inheritance
  • Reproductive health
  • Research
  • Curative therapies

Campaign Resources & Support

View Awareness Calendar