Common Drug Helps Babies with Sickle Cell Disease, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Study Finds

A drug that eases symptoms of sickle cell disease in older children is safe and effective to use for babies with the blood disorder and should become the new standard of care, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They said the generic drug hydroxyurea significantly reduced pain and other common complications in babies with the disease, including hospitalizations and the need for blood transfusions. "These results show that hydroxyurea has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for an entire generation of patients with sickle cell disease," said Dr. Winfred Wang of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, who led the six-year study published in the journal Lancet.