(The Atlantic) – Sid now works on a rare-disease program within the National Institutes of Health. Since he first found out that he was a carrier for thalassemia, he told me, research has shown that people like him can experience health consequences. These include lethargy and fainting—symptoms that hardly capture the disease’s classic presentation but still have real consequences. And thalassemia is not unique. There are hundreds upon hundreds of known disorders for which carriers were thought to be safe; for a growing number of those diseases, doctors and scientists now believe that being a carrier can come with health problems. Plenty of patients have guessed all along that being a carrier could explain mysteries about their health, Sid said. “It took a while for the science to basically catch up to that suspicion.” (Read More)