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Claim: A Facebook post by @Culture Collective stated that New York has recorded the first cure for sickle cell anaemia.
Verdict: Misleading. Although a patient in New York, Sebastien Beauzile, was successfully treated for sickle cell anaemia using gene therapy, this does not represent the first recorded cure for the disease. It has been cured in other patients as early as the 1980s using bone marrow transplants.
Full Text
Sickle cell anaemia is a hereditary blood disorder that affects the shape and function of red blood cells. In people with the condition, red blood cells become rigid and crescent-shaped rather than round and flexible. These abnormal cells obstruct blood flow, limit oxygen supply to body tissues, and break down earlier than normal cells, which results in anaemia and other serious health complications.
Medical literature first documented sickle cell anaemia in 1910, when American physician James B. Herrick reported unusual sickle-shaped red blood cells in a patient from the Caribbean. Later studies identified the disorder as a genetic condition caused by a mutation in the gene responsible for haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in the blood.
Sickle cell anaemia affects people of African descent most frequently, but it also occurs among populations from the Middle East, India, the Mediterranean region, and parts of Latin America. A child develops the disease when both parents pass on the sickle cell gene.
Recently, @Culture Collective shared a claim on Facebook that a patient in New York has been cured of sickle cell anaemia.
The caption, attached to an image of a young black man, read, “A life-changing breakthrough! New York is the first to cure sickle cell anaemia, bringing hope to millions.”
As of Dec. 23, 2025, the post had garnered approximately 5,000 likes, 201 comments, and 851 reposts.
From the comments section, @MaryAnn Duncan Ganzel reacted, “Wow! Hope this is true.”
@Shirley James shared, “My nephew was born with the disease. He is in his 20s and suffering so much in Trinidad. I live in Canada. I pray for a cure.”
@Margarita Villaronga reacted, “This is absolutely amazing news.”
@Edwin Jernigan added, “I am happy for you. I am 62 years old, waiting and hoping to be cured.”
@Arturo Villanueva noted, “I believe this happened in 2024, but it is great news regardless.”
@Shana Gordon reacted, “That’s great news.”
@Eberle Gongora asked, “How can I be part of this cure? I have sickle cell anaemia and have to receive blood transfusions every three to five months.”
@Lois Best expressed hope, “I hope it will be for everyone.”
The topic’s health-related nature, combined with its potential to attract widespread attention, led DUBAWA to verify the facts.
Verification
DUBAWA began by searching for reports from credible sources to confirm whether anyone in New York had indeed been cured of sickle cell anaemia. We found multiple reports from international media organisations and medical publications. These reports consistently referenced a single patient case linked to a gene-therapy procedure carried out in New York State.
According to the reports, a 21-year-old Long Island resident, Sebastien Beauzile, received a gene-therapy treatment known as Lyfgenia on Dec. 17, 2024, at Cohen Children’s Medical Centre in New Hyde Park, New York. Before the procedure, Sebastien had lived with sickle cell anaemia since childhood and had a documented history of symptoms associated with the condition.
Boston Children’s Hospital explained in one of its studies that Lyfgenia is a gene-therapy product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of sickle cell disease. In this process, doctors extract a patient’s blood stem cells, modify them in a laboratory to produce healthy haemoglobin, and later return them to the patient’s body. This approach enables the bone marrow to produce red blood cells without the sickle-shaped defects associated with the disease.
In March 2025, a Forbes report noted that following the procedure, Beauzile showed no recurrence of sickle cell–related symptoms during subsequent medical evaluations. Doctors involved in the case stated that medical tests confirmed sustained production of healthy red blood cells.
Image update from March 2025 showing 21-year-old Sebastien Beauzile following his medical treatment. Photo source: Forbes.
CBS News reported that the case represents the first known instance in New York State to result in an apparent cure through this specific gene-therapy approach. However, the reports clarified that the outcome applies to a single patient treated under controlled clinical conditions and does not constitute a cure that is available to all people living with sickle cell anaemia.
A 1984 study published in the National Library of Medicine shows that the cure of sickle cell anaemia did not begin with the gene-therapy case in New York. The study reported that doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, United States, successfully cured a patient with sickle cell anaemia through bone marrow transplantation, under the care of Dr Donnall Thomas.
Other patients were subsequently cured using the same procedure.
Specialists’ insights
DUBAWA spoke to Aminu Babale, a paediatrician at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, who has worked with several cases of Sickle cell anaemia in children. Aminu said that ailments that are hereditary or genetic are rarely easy to cure.
“The term ‘cure’ for sickle cell anaemia would mean the elimination of symptoms and the correction of the genetic defect, rather than every person’s applicable solution. Gene therapy, as demonstrated in select cases abroad, addresses the abnormal haemoglobin responsible for sickle-shaped red blood cells,” he said.
Aminu explained that the therapy follows a complex, multi-stage process. He said that doctors collect the patient’s blood stem cells, modify them in a laboratory to produce healthy haemoglobin, and then return them to the patient after a conditioning treatment.
DUBAWA also spoke to Ezra John, a Paediatric Haematologist at Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Gombe. Ezra explained that gene therapy for sickle cell anaemia, as done in some countries, has not been performed in Africa. He added that the treatment needs advanced labs, trained staff, and strict regulation, which are not widely available.
“Bone marrow transplant is the only treatment that can cure sickle cell in Nigeria. The procedure needs careful patient selection, special facilities, and close monitoring. These treatments give hope, but they are expensive and not available to most patients, so we need more local resources and investment, ” he buttressed.
Conclusion
DUBAWA’s findings confirm that Sebastien Beauzile was cured of sickle cell anaemia through gene therapy in New York in 2024, but this is not the first documented case.
