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Essay On Sickle Cell Anemia

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Essay On Sickle Cell Anemia
Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited disorder that affects the building of hemoglobin in the body. Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that moves oxygen through the body. People are born with sickle cell anemia when they inherit two abnormal genes from both parents (one from each). People with sickle cell disease has a hemoglobin called hemoglobin S. Normally cells move through the body easily but for people who have sickle cell anemia, their cells tend to block blood vessels. Normal red blood cells last for 4 months in the bloodstream but sickle cells fail after 10 to 20 days which causes Anemia. Red blood cells live for 120 days before new ones restore them. Red blood cells containing mostly hemoglobin S, that do not live as long as …show more content…
“First identified in 1904 by a hospital intern, sickle cell disease became the first disease found to be a genetic disease, forty years later” (Harris 83). In Sickle Cell Anemia, a failing in the gene controls that hemoglobins creation. It is passed from parents to their children. Sickle cells curve into a the shape of a crescent moon(Peterson, 2006). Having sickle cell means a life full of battles against health trouble like pain, infections, and stroke. This results in deprivation of oxygen rich blood to organs and tissues that need it. Sickle cell is a recessive genetic disease, meaning that both pairs of the gene must contain the mutation for a person to have sickle cell anaemia. Sickle cell may cause blockage because the cells do not flow through blood vessels easily and this can cause painful episodes that associate with the disease. This pain can damage organs such as the kidneys, spleen, heart, lungs, pelvic bones and the brain. Tissue that do not receive a normal blood flow after some time becomes damaged. Organs can be damaged by poor blood flow and may be vulnerable to infections. People with Sickle cell anemia tend to have a enfeeble heart because the it is continuously

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