Sickle Cell Anaemia

Sickle cell anaemia

What is sickle cell anaemia?

Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited disease which is passed on by both parents and is not a contagious or infectious disease. This gene is normally recessive, but can sometimes the child can get sickle cell anaemia if the have received the effected genes from both parents. It mostly affects people who live in Africa and the Caribbean, and isn’t popular in the UK. This is so popular in these countries because people who have inherited one of the genes become resistant to malaria, which gives them an advantage to survive.

The effects of sickle cell anaemia

Sickle cell anaemia affects the red blood cells. The blood cells are used to carry oxygen around the body; this is done by use of haemoglobin, which is a protein that is found in the red blood cells. When a person has sickle cell anaemia their red blood cells are shaped like sickles, this is because there is a mutation which stops them working properly. The symptoms of sickle cell anaemia are:

• Pain in the arms, back, stomach, legs and swelling of feet and hands or stiff joints. This is caused by the mutated cells getting stuck in the small blood vessels which will stop the normal flow of the blood.

• People who are affected are more prone to getting infections. They can become anaemic, which means they would feel weak and tired.

• Jaundice, this means when blood cells can be destroyed quickly, this causes the eyes to look yellow.

• Damage to organs can occur, also can cause gall stones and strokes.

• People with sickle cell anaemia don’t have a long life expectancy as a healthy person; the average life expectancy is 50 years.

The patterns of inheritance

Sickle cell anaemia affects the red blood cell and haemoglobin which is contained in the red blood cells. You inherit your haemoglobin type from your parents through their genes. There are over 500 types of haemoglobin. To inherit sickle cell anaemia both parents have to be carriers of the gene, and the child has to receive the effected gene from