Genetic Disease: Sickle Cell Anemia

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

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

Jacquelyn Sayikanmi Understanding Sickle Cell Disease Introduction 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. The method of transmission of this disease is inherited by both parent who have (SCD) so when they produce a child the child will have 2 sickle cell genes. There are many statistics on sickle cell anemia.

Approximately 1 in 13 African American babies will be born with the trait of Sickle Cell Anemia

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

Introduction Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder in which red blood cells take on an abnormal shape. Sickle cell anemia is when the red blood cells hemolyze, or die. Sickle cell disease is inherited from generation to generation and is the most common in inherited blood disorders. An estimated 70,000-100,000 people in America are currently suffering from this disease, most of which are African Americans. One is diagnosed with sickle cell disease in early childhood generally around four months old when the signs and symptoms are presented. Because of its huge impact, the United States requires all newborns to be tested for this disease. [1] Sickle cell disease is known to affect, “approximately 1 in every 400-500 African American

While people are trying to find a breakthrough cure for diseases such as Cancer, Sickle Cell patients feel that they are left in the dark of the public’s eye. Each day thousands of people are being faced with the shocking truth of having to live a very hard, tiresome, and very painful life. According to researchers about one in four hundred African American is affected with Sickle Cell. Therefore it is felt that there should be a greater effort in trying to find a cure for this disease.

Sickle cell anaemia has been proven to provide both those afflicted with the disorder and carriers with malarial resistance. In large populations of Africa, sickle cell anaemia is heavily prevalent due to such a high mortality rate of malaria. This is because the sickle cell trait will not be affected by the malaria disease, hence; those unaffected will survive to reproduce and pass down the gene. Statistics obtained from sicklecelldisease.org propose

What is sickle cell disease? Sickle cell diseases are inherited blood disorders that affect mostly African Americans about 70,000 people in the United States. The studies shows approximately 2 million Americans have the sickle cell trait. The sickle cell trait occurs in about 1 in 12 African Americans and sickle cell disease affects millions of people worldwide. The rate for sickle cell disease or sickle cell trait is higher in people who live in Africa, South or Central America, the Caribbean islands, Mediterranean countries, India, and Saudi Arabia.

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

Sickle Cell Anemia Sickle Cell Anemia takes Thousands of years ago, a genetic mutation occurred in people from the Mediterranean basin, India, Africa, and the Middle East. As the Malaria Epidemic attacked people of these countries, carriers of the defective hemoglobin gene survived. Carrying one defective gene means that a person has a sickle cell trait. Two parents with the trait will produce a child with sickle cell anemia. People of these countries migrated and spread to other areas. In the Western Hemisphere, where malaria is not much of a problem, having the abnormal hemoglobin gene has lost its advantage. Any child born from parents that each has the trait will be born with the disease.