In 2010 the WISSH Inaugural Conference at De Montfort University in the UK marked the 100 years since James Herrick published observations of “peculiar elongated cells” - what is now known as sickle cell disease. The Second WISSH conference in Atlanta, USA in 2012 focussed on sickle cell and thalassaemia as public health issues of global importance. This Third WISSH conference seeks to mark the changing global profile of sickle cell and thalassaemia, with particular emphasis on social scientific research, on social research relevant to improving services for people with sickle cell/thalassaemia and on research relevant to countries of the Global South.

The scientific committee of the Worldwide Initiative on Social Studies of Hemoglobinopathies in collaboration with the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the World Congress on Sickle Cell, and the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network is delighted to present the Third International WISSH conference Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia: A View from the Global South

Simon Dyson