Sickle cell disease disproportionately affects Black people in Wisconsin: Here’s what you need to know

Porscha Burks lives a normal life in many ways. She is the mother to an 8-year-old boy and works as a patient service representative at a clinic on Milwaukee’s North Side.

However, there is one thing that sets her apart from the average person. 

Burks has been living with sickle cell disease her entire life.

“I don’t think people understand how difficult living with sickle cell is,” she said.

For Black patients, like Burks, there are many barriers to sickle cell treatment, the biggest among them being lack of access to quality health care and limited blood donations, experts say...