Sickle Cell Anemia Essay

Sickle cell anemia occurs when a person inherits two abnormal genes (one from each parent) that cause their red blood cells to change shape. Instead of being flexible and round, these cells are more rigid and curved in the shape of the farm tool known as a sickle - that's where the disease gets its name. The shape

Each year in the US, an average of 75,000 hospitalizations are due to sickle cell disease, costing approximately $475 million. Sickle cell disease is also associated with significant mortality. Among children, the primary causes of mortality are bacterial infections and stroke. In adults, it is more difficult to attribute specific causes to mortality, but it appears that individuals with more indicative disease are at risk for early mortality.

In conclusion, sickle cell anemia and the sickle cell trait are more common in African-Americans and people who live in places where malaria is common. Individuals with the trait seem to live normal and healthy lives, however individuals who have the trait and experience high altitudes or vigorous exercise tend to feel unwell because of the lack of oxygen getting into the cells causing them to sickle. In addition, the sickling of the cells can be reversible to a certain extent in people with the trait, however people who have sickle cell anemia the sickling of the cells is irreversible due to the severity of the disease.

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

Approximately 100,000 people suffer from Sickle Cell Anemia everyday and about 2 million people have the Sickle Cell trait in the United States alone. Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 70,000 to 80,000 Americans (Pruthi 2018). The disease is estimated to occur in 1 in 500 African Americans and 1 in 1,000 to 1,400 Hispanic Americans (Pruthi 2018). Sickle cell anemia is an inherited form of anemia, a condition in which there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout your body normally, your red blood cells are flexible and round, moving easily through your blood vessels. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells become

The disease is caused by a mutated version of the gene that help makes hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Sickle cell is a disorder in the blood caused by abnormal hemoglobin proteins. The abnormal hemoglobin protein caused sickle cell shaped red blood cells. The sickle cell red blood cells are crescent shapes and can clog up very easily in blood canals. In the diagram to the right it shows how a mutation causes a change in the amino acid.

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited blood disease which causes normal, round, healthy red blood cells to transform into sickle-shaped cells. Normal red blood cells are flexible and can easily pass through capillaries to bring oxygen to different parts of the body. However, sickle cells are fragile, and can easily die, leading to anemia (red blood cell deficiency). SCA can also cause blood vessel occlusion (blockage of blood vessels), tissue infarctions (death due to lack of oxygen), bone, joint, and abdominal pain, yellow eyes and skin, pale skin, delayed growth, increased risk of infections, and damage to organs. The disease is passed on by autosomal recessive inheritance, which means both parents of a child must have the defective gene for the child to be affected. If only one gene is inherited, the victim becomes a carrier of the sickle cell trait, producing only some sickle cells with little or no symptoms. This means two people with the trait have a 25% chance of having a baby with sickle cell disease, 25% chance of them having no defects, and 50% chance of the baby becoming a carrier as well. When the gene is inherited, it mutates the beta (β) globin gene in chromosome 11, changing the hemoglobins produced using instructions from the gene from a healthy hemoglobin A (Hb A) to a mutated hemoglobin S (Hb S). Many tests can be done to check for sickle cell disease, the most common being an ordinary blood test, where the blood is examined for hemoglobin S. If the

Sickle Cell Disease occurs most commonly in individuals whose families descend from West Africa, South or Central America (particularly Panama), Caribbean islands, Mediterranean nations, (for example, Turkey, Greece, and Italy), India, and Saudi Arabia. In the United States, it’s estimated that Sickle cell affects between 70,000–100,000 individuals, predominately African

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an inherited autosomal recessive condition that causes the red blood cells (RBCs) to be crescent shaped. Sickle cell disease occurs in 1 out of every 400 African Americans births (Field, et al 2009). And according to the Centers of Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), 1 out of 13 African American babies are born with the sickle cell trait (SCT). At the same time SCD is present in only 1 out of 300 Caucasian babies, thus it is considered to be one of the most prevalent genetic health disparities affecting people of African, Indian, Hispanic, and Mediterranean decent (Kotch, et al 2000).

300,000 children are born annually in the world with sickle cell, unfortunately they are usually in poor third world countries without the means to handle the epidemic. In countries such as Ghana the percentages of people that carry the trait can be upwards of 30 to 40 percent while in other parts of the continent there can be percentages upwards of 50 percent. The wide range and variation in people that carry it in different parts of the country might be connected to the different levels of malaria exposure, which I explained earlier, it appears that people with sickle cell are immune to malaria which is a bigger killer of humans in that region of the

Sickle cell anemia is a disease that is found in about seventy thousand to one-hundred thousand people in a year here in the United States, most commonly found in African-Americans. This disease occurs in the blood where the hemoglobin attaches itself to the oxygen in the lungs and then carried all throughout the body. When this occurs the red blood cell is changed to rigid and the shape turns to a “C” (A.K.A. Sickle) which is where the disease got its name. The C like cell may get stuck and block blood flow to vital organs which can cause a stroke, acute chest syndrome, organ damage, and other disabilities. Sickle cell is unfortunately an inherited disease which is either passed down by both parents or if one parents has the trait and the

Sickle cell disease, also known as SCD, is a hereditary blood disorder that takes place due to mutation in the hemoglobin gene that is found in red blood cells. While it is said to have originated in Africa and is mostly predominant in African Americans, sickle cell disease is now common among different ethnic groups all over the world. Sickle cell anemia (HbSS) infects “an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Americans”(Housman) and accounts for approximately 70% of anemia in the United States. Hemoglobin functions as an oxygen carrying protein as it carries oxygen from the lungs through the arteries and to the rest of the body. In sickle cell disease,

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.

Sickle cell anemia is an anemia that is inherited and mostly affects people whose heritage can be traced back to places where malaria was prevalent. There are approximately 100,000 Americans that have the disease and many more with the trait. Several of my family members are afflicted by this medical condition that causes red blood cells to take on an irregular shape.

In agriculture, a sickle is an essential tool for harvesting crops, necessary for a process that sustains life; however, in the medical field, hearing one’s doctor use the word to describe his or her cells can unleash a wave of terror. Sickle Cell Disease, commonly known as SCD, is a genetic blood disease that is called as such because mutated red blood cells become sickle-shaped (“Sickle Cell Disease”). This genetic mutation greatly impacts life throughout the entire world, though it is continuously a problem in the United States. According to Monique Laberge, “As of 2014, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) estimated that [the disease] affects 70,000-100,000 people in the United States.” Currently, in North America,