A World of Pain!
Sickle Cell Disease is an inherited genetic blood disorder in which the blood cells lose oxygen, changing the shape of normal healthy blood cells from flexile donuts to sharp prickly crescents. This causes massive pain in the blood vessels thats has been estimated to be worse than child labor pain. The sickle cells die early, which causes a constant shortage of blood flow. This can cause pain and other serious problems such as infection, acute chest syndrome stroke, heart attacks, seizures, dehydration, bone deterioration, and severe organ damage to name a few of the symptoms. Many patients have frequent hospitalizations, frequent pain and other symptoms that interrupt daily independence.
How You Get It
Sickle cell disease is a condition that people get in the same way that they get the natural color of their eyes, skin and hair. A person with sickle cell disease is born with it, it is not contagious or transmitted and it is no one’s fault. Both parents must have the trait for a child to be born with sickle cell. Due to a lack of information and awareness, many people never knew they or their partner had the trait until after having a sickle cell child.
A World Wide Disease?
Because sickle cell is a genetic mutation that stemmed from malaria, it affects millions of people throughout the world (70,000-100,000+ in the US) and is particularly common among those with ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa; Spanish-speaking regions in the Western Hemisphere (South America, the Caribbean, and Central America); Saudi Arabia; India; and Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
Sickle Cell Disease Association of America 