Sickle Cell Anemia
Brianne Greco
Overview
Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease that effects the blood particularly the hemoglobin. The red blood cells look like sickles or crescent shape.
Inherited
SCA is an inherited blood disorder. This disease is most common among African American and Hispanic. One in 12 carries the trait for African American and one in 100 Hispanic carries the trait. When both parents have his disease there is a 25% chance the child will get it. If only one parent has the disease there is a 50% chance that the child will be a carrier of this disease. This is a recessive trait.
Research
They have developed a new drug to produce more red blood cells but this drug is not the safest and has ben only tested on adults. Other research is focused on bone marrow transplants.
Symptoms
The first symptoms of SCA occur when the child is about six months old. Good home care and medical care could possibly help children to live a normal life. When something is wrong with your child they will experience pain, fever, loss of appetite, and, paleness of skin. If this happens antibiotics could help.
Tests and Treatments
- Tests
A blood test is used to find out if someone had SCA. The way they check the blood is by examining the blood under a microscope to find the sickled blood cells.
When a baby is born it is tested right away in 40 states to see if it has SCA. If a woman is pregnant they can also find out if their unborn baby has SCA.
- Treatments
Because of drug treatments and medical care, half of SCA patients live past 50 years. The treatments are
- Antibiotics
- Pain management
- Blood transfusions
The only cure is a bone marrow transplantation from a sibling. Continued research is needed
Fair Use Statement
This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law. It has been prepared according to the multimedia fair use guidelines and is restricted from further use.
Citation
- "Learning about Sickle Cell Disease." National Human Genome Research Institute.
page.cfm?pageID=10001219>.
- "Sickle Cell Anemia." DISCovering Multicultural America. 2003. Student Resources
- "Sickle Cell Disease." Genetics Home Reference. National Library of Medicine's,
sickle-cell-disease>.
- "What You Should Know about Sickle Cell Trait." Centers for Disease Control and
sicklecell/documents/factsheet_sickle_cell_trait.pdf>.