REDAC is an African network created in 2010 in Kinshasa, which brings together researchers and clinicians involved in sickle cell disease. It also includes African, European, and American researchers who dedicate their time to research.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of the βs gene responsible for sickle cell disease is high, making sickle cell disease the most widespread genetic disease and a major public health problem.

After India and Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the third most affected country. The hemoglobin abnormality, due to the presence of the βs gene, which characterizes sickle cell disease, causes, under conditions of oxygen deficiency, the deformation and rigidity of red blood cells and the abnormal adhesion of red blood cells to the walls of blood vessels.

The consequences are numerous, including the obstruction of micro-vessels (vaso-occlusion) and the premature destruction of red blood cells (hemolysis) and the appearance of acute and chronic complications such as painful attacks, anemia, infections, strokes, priapism, leg ulcers, and pulmonary complications.

Faced with the heterogeneity in the management of this disease in Central Africa, sickle cell specialists from the following countries: Gabon, Cameroon, Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, together with other specialists from Martinique and the United States, met in Kinshasa in the DRC in 2010, and decided to create a network enabling collaborations to harmonize care and offer African patients the opportunity to benefit from quality basic therapies.

REDAC, which was formed on the basis of these objectives, enjoys legal recognition as an association governed by French law, and has its registered office in Paris, France, and its administrative headquarters in Kinshasa, DRC.