· Sickle cell anemia is a serious disorder in the production of red blood cells (specifically at creating hemoglobin).
· A normal red blood cell is disc-shaped and flexible so they go easily through the blood stream, a sickle cell has this name for the shape it has, which is in the form of a sickle.
· Due to this shape, cells can't transport the same amount of oxygen to the body, and it often blocks the frequent flow in the circulatory system, and this causes pain.
· Sickle cell disease has to be inherited, two copies of the gene, one from each parent, to create the abnormal hemoglobin that cause sickle cell anemia.
· This gene of the disease is created by a muting process in DNA duplication, and then the gene is inherited to the next generation with a pair of the genes.
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· This disease has to be an inherited gene by the two parents. When only one parent has the gene, it will be inherited to the other generation; however it will only have the trait, not the disease. This trait will not produce symptoms in most of the cases. When having both parents with the genes there is a 25 percentage of having the illness, and a 50 percent of probability of having the trait.
Sickle cell trait (or sicklemia) describes a condition in which a person has one abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene (is heterozygous), but does not display the severe symptoms of sickle cell disease that occur in a person who has two copies of that allele (is homozygous).
Even though having the sickle cell trait does not require a treatment and is symptom free, is necessary to make some tests, that way the disease is more controlled and there is some warning in order to control the spread of the illness.
· This disease can produce some complications in the liver.
· Also because of the low immune system the patients can suffer of Streptococcus pneumonia, Salmonella, and Hemophilus influenza.
· Pneumococcal pneumonia and septicemia are the most devastating consequences of sickle cell anemia.
· They also can develop lung tissue damage, strokes and the blockage of blood flow caused by sickled cells also causes damage to most organs including the spleen, kidneys and liver.
