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The Death Of Sickle Cell Disease

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The purpose of this essay it to determine whether or not Jonathon Jackson, a 30 year old air traffic controller whom has been faithful to his company and job for over eight years that has recently discovered he has sickle cell anemia, should be dismissed from his job regarding his genetic test results. Sickle cell anaemia is the most severe form of sickle cell disease and is a genetic disease of the red blood cells (Gibbons, 2015). Red blood cells have a disk like form which allows them the ability to travel through blood vessels. Although in people with sickle cell, the red blood cells form an abnormal crescent shape which makes them rigid and sticky as shown in Diagram 3 below. This causes the sickled cells to get trapped in small vessels which blocks blood from reaching different parts of the body leading to pain, tissue damage and many more symptoms (University of Utah, 2015). The term anaemia comes from having a shortage of red blood cells in your blood which occurs because sickled cells only last up to 10- 20 days while normal red blood cells last approximately 120 days. The name ‘sickle’ comes from an old farm tool known as a sickle as shown in Diagram 4 below which represents the same shape as curved sickled cells (Petch, 2012). Sickle cell disease affects millions of people worldwide and is most common in those who have ancestors from Africa, the Mediterranean, The Arabian Peninsula and Spanish speaking areas in South America. People with sickle cell anaemia on

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