Genetic Disease: Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell anemia is a type of anemia- A condition where there aren’t enough healthy blood cells to carry adequate amounts of oxygen throughout the body. It is also known as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Normally red blood cells (RBC(s)) have a round shape, making them very flexible and giving them the ability to travel through your veins easily. However, when a person has sickle cell anemia, red blood cells become rigid and develop a crescent-like shape. This shape makes it hard for blood cells to travel through the body’s tiny veins. Thus, the crescent-shaped cells often get stuck in tight spots of the body and result in serious blood clots.

Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disorder that mostly affects people of African ancestry, but also occurs in other ethnic groups, including people who are of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia. And about 2 million Americans - and one in 12 African Americans - have sickle cell trait (this means they carry one gene for the disease, but do not have the disease itself).

It has always been assumed that genetics and lifestyle play a major role in the presence of health disparities and health care issue that affects African-Americans. This paper provides a historical background to a key disease more prevalent in the African American community, Sickle Cell Anemia, the history behind the disease, genetic mechanisms that influences once probability of inheritance and in-depth treatment on how to manage, prevent and sustain a healthy lifestyle when dealing with sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disease that alters important aspects of the body physiologically and can be inherited via genes. Sickle cell disease (SCD) was first identified in 1910 and has existed in the continent of Africa for five

Hypothesis: African-American parents with the Sickle Cell Trait have the greatest risk of passing Sickle Cell Anemia to their offspring.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) occurs in 1 out of every 365 African American births compared to 1 out of 16,000 Hispanic-American births (1). SCD is a group of red blood cell disorders in which patients have a sickle or moon-shaped red blood cell due to an abnormal S hemoglobin. While sickle cell disease is relatively rare in American births, this is an alarming statistic among people of Sub-Saharan (west and central) African descent. An interesting fact is that SCD occurs more often among people from parts of the world where malaria is or was common, such as Sub-Saharan Africa (1). In addition, it is believed that people who carry the sickle cell trait are less likely to have

The sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 people in the America. The most common ethnic group the sickle cell anemia is seen in is African Americans and Hispanics. Approximately one in every ten African American and one in every one hundred Hispanic Americans have the sickle cell trait. Approximately two million people have the sickle cell trait in America. Approximately one in five- hundred African Americans and one in one thousand to one thousand and four hundred Hispanic-Americans have sickle cell disease. No universal cure has been found for sickle cell anemia (“Facts About Sickle Cell Trait And Disease,”n.d.). Sickle cell anemia affects many Americans and a universal cure needs to be found.

Sickle Cell Disease is normally viewed as a “black” disease, yet the primary areas of geographic origin of the disease are the Mediterranean Basin and Central Africa, regions that are primarily “white”.

Sickle cell anemia is a blood disorder that happen very commonly in the African descent.

Sickle cell disease is categorized as an autosomal recessive disease. That means in order for one to inherit the disease, they must inherit two recessive alleles for sickle cell disease, or hemoglobin S gene. Having only one recessive allele makes you a carrier. The disorder causes the affected person’s red blood cells to disfigure into a crescent or sickle, which differs from the normal red blood cells that shaped into a doughnut. Sometimes, cells in a sickle shape cannot get through the narrow passageways of the blood vessels as easily as normal red blood cells. This blocks blood from entering and oxygen can’t reach the affected person’s organs. It can also crystallize and block arteries and

Sickle -cell anemia is a very important subject to touch on in today’s time because many people honestly do not know what this is. Sickle -cell anemia is a severe hereditary form of anemia in which a mutated form of hemoglobin distorts the red blood cells into a crescent shape at low oxygen levels (SCDAA par .1). Also it is one of the most common diseases in the African American race. There are other races that this particular disease would show up in such as the Hispanics, and people of the South American descent. According to the American Society of Hematology there are a count for 70 ,000 to 100 ,000 African Americans suffering from this disease (American Society of Hematology par .1). Statistics also state that 1 in 12 African Americans even have the sickle cell trait (ASH par .4). By doing simple math, that means that over the course of a year, there are over 1 ,000 babies being born in the United States with that disease. I know if I was shocked by those numbers, there are others out there who would be shocked too. I believe there should be more awareness thrown out there about sickle cell anemia because, it takes 2 parents with the trait to bring a child into this world unknowingly with the full blown disease. Throughout many countries sickle -cell often times gets sucked under the radar, when it really should be front in center because of the severity of this disease. Sickle -cell does not go away in a few days with a little bit of rest or medication, like the

The cause of sickle cell anemia is by a mutation gene. The gene tells your body to make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is responsible for giving the blood its red color and allows the red blood cells to carry oxygen from your lungs to all the parts of your body. The sickle cell gene is passed down from one generation to the next and is inherited. It is called autosomal recessive inheritance. This happens when both the mother and father pass on the detective form of gene. If only one parent passes on the sickle cell gene to the child that means the child will have the sickle cell trait. People who have the sickle cell trait are carriers and can pass the defective gene to their children. Your ethnic background can put you at risk for sickle cell anemia.

It is interesting to know the relationship between race and body structure, skin color, other visible characteristics, enzymatic and genetic variations, susceptibility to diseases and nutritional preferences varies among certain racial groups (Giger, 2013). There are marked intra individual and inter individual inconsistency in SCD. Medical heterogeneity of the disease has been clarified by both genetic and environmental factors. Identified genetic causes adding to differences in clinical severity of the disease include the pattern of sickle cell inheritance. Other modulators of the disease include environmental factors such as access to optimal health care, ambient living conditions, and availability of finance. Proper training of healthcare

As mentioned earlier, SCD is Autosomal recessive, which means both copies of the sickle gene are inherited from the parents (Sickle Cell Disease). Those more likely to present with Sickle Cell Disease are of African, Mediterranean, and Caribbean origin (Sickle Cell Disease). Genes that SCD can carry in hemoglobin are as follows: Hemoglobin SS(hgbSS), Hemoglobin SC (hgbSC), Hemoglobin Sβ° thalassemia, hemoglobin Sβ°+ Thalassemia, Hemoglobin SD(hgbSD) and Hemoglobin SE(hgbSD) (What is Sickle Cell Disease?). Below is a case study about the Orca Family that shows family generations of SCD and the Sickle Cell

Being heterozygous helps individuals thrive in a dangerous environment plagued with diseases. However, not everyone is lucky enough to acquire the heterozygous allele, some individuals must live the rest of their lives with sickle-cell and they are also prone to other diseases. Furthermore, being a carrier of the homozygous (SS) allele can increase your chances of dying if the person becomes infected with another virus or disease. Moving along, my research also determined that there is a need for more neonatal screening since Africa is susceptible to numerous types of diseases, and sickle-cell being one of them. Another important subject to bring up is that sickle-cell may have been brought to Africa by people migrating from Southern Arabia and India, or it may have been a mutation that took

Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary disease that changes the smallest and most important components of the body. A gene causes the bone marrow in the body to make sickled shapes, when this happens; it causes the red blood cell to die faster. This is what causes Hemolytic Anemia. Older children and adults with sickle cell disease may experience a few complications, or have a pattern of ongoing problems that shorten their lives. The most common and serious complications of sickle cell disease are anemia, pain, fatigue, and organ failure. Today there are many alternatives and opportunities that a sickle cell patient may consider. One outlined in this paper is the Hydroxyurea method.