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Sickle cell disease ( SCD ), also simply called sickle cell, is a group of hemoglobin-related blood disorders typically inherited. [2] The most common type is known as sickle cell anemia. [2] It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blood cells. [2]
Sickle cell anemia affects about 72,000 people in the United States. Most Americans who have sickle cell anemia are of African descent. The disease also affects Americans from the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America, Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Middle East and East India.
While malaria is still affecting the regular cells (2), the ratio of sickle to regular cells is 50/50 due to sickle cell anemia being a heterozygous trait, so the malaria cannot affect enough cells with schizonts (5) to harm the body.
A sickle cell health crisis can escalate into life-threatening complications, but patients still struggle to get seen quickly in emergency rooms and also to get pain medicine.
This would be similar to the hemoglobin allele which is responsible for sickle-cell disease, but solely in people with two copies; those with just one copy of the allele have a sickle cell trait and gain partial immunity to malaria as a result. This effect is called heterozygote advantage. [27]
Beverley Francis-Gibson. Website. www.sicklecelldisease.org. The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. ( SCDAA) is a nonprofit organization with the sole purpose of supporting research, education and funding of individuals, families those who are impacted by sickle cell disease .