Optical absorbance-based rapid test for the detection of sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease at the point-of-care

•The study proposes a rapid low-cost test based on optical absorbance to detect sickle hemoglobin (HbS).•The proposed test can differentiate between sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease.•The proposed test only requires 5 μl of blood and the test result can be obtained in 15 min.•The proposed test has been clinically validated using 438 blood samples from populations susceptible to sickle cell disease.•The proposed test has an average sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 98.6%.