SEPTEMBER IS SICKLE CELL AWARENESS MONTH

For those of you who read this blog, you know this blog is dedicated to Sickle Cell Disease. September is a month in which sickle cell is highlighted by the National Institute of Health, therefore I have dedicated an article about sickle cell disease the last two years.  It is my desire that my readers will learn something and hopefully pass it on to those who wish to learn more by joining my blog.

In order for the sickle cell community effort to get the word out, we must develop the capacity to communicate appropriately through all the social networks. We must then put pressure on government agencies to fund innovative initiatives of finding a cure and we must support our foundation's efforts to obtain sustainable fundiing. Finally we should create a positive environment of collaboration.

As promised let's get back to the original intent of this post.  Keeping in mind that there are almost 2,000,000 people in the United States who have either sickle cell or a trait of sickle cell (carriers). Most have no symptoms and called carriers.  Carriers received a gene from one parent. When two carriers have children there is a 25% chance that they will have a child with sickle cell anemia.

Let's get started with some facts.

Below are some facts on sickle cell disease.
What Is Sickle Cell Disease?

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders.

• Healthy red blood cells are round and they move through small blood vessels carrying oxygen to all parts of the body.
  
• In SCD, the red blood cells become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle”.
  
• Sickle cells die early, which causes a constant shortage of red blood cells.
  
• Sickle cells can get stuck in small blood vessels and block the flow of blood and oxygen to organs in the body. These blockages cause repeated episodes of severe pain, organ damage, serious infections, or even stroke. (taken from CDC facts about sickle cell disease)