diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/package.nix
index 18269b941cc4..9f229cf9958d 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/package.nix
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     "-DZLIB_STATIC=off"
   ];
 
+  patches = [
+    ./ssw-stdbool.patch
+  ];
+
   postPatch = ''
     # Fix missing pthread dependency for the main binary.
     substituteInPlace src/sortmerna/CMakeLists.txt \
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/ssw-stdbool.patch b/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/ssw-stdbool.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d2115cc9fec6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/so/sortmerna/ssw-stdbool.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+diff --git a/include/ssw.h b/include/ssw.h
+index 5259c95..32bb146 100644
+--- a/include/ssw.h
++++ b/include/ssw.h
+@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ struct _profile;
+ typedef struct _profile s_profile;
+ 
+ #ifndef __cplusplus
+-typedef unsigned char bool;
++#include <stdbool.h>
+ static const bool False = 0;
+ static const bool True = 1;
+ #endif