Sickle Cell Research Paper

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SICKLES CELL AN ONGOING BATTLE Tonya Scales SOC313: Social Implications of Medical Issues (CGF1144A) Instructor: Katherine Malish November 27, 2011 Sickle Cell disease affects 70,000 to 100,000 people in the America according to the SCDAA 2011 report. There is no known cure for this disease, just researching ways of prevention and d further genealogy research to prevention. This paper will identify what Sickle is, how it is contracted, the disease conditions as it is in the medical community, the psychosocial and vocational aspects of the disease, data on how many Americans are dealing with this disease and how it affects the country, ways in which the medical community is trying to find cure or ways they are trying to help those…show more content…
People who inherit one sickle cell gene and one normal gene have sickle cell trait (SCT). People with SCT usually do not have any of the symptoms of sickle cell disease (SCD), but they can pass the trait on to their children. It is inherited from the parents, there is a 50% chance that a child will inherit the trait, but may not have the disease. People with sickle cell disease (SCD) start to have signs of the disease during the first year of life, usually around 5 months of age. Symptoms and complications of SCD are different for each person and can range from mild to severe. The reason that infants don’t show symptoms at birth is because baby or fetal hemoglobin protects the red blood cells from sickling. When the infant if around 4 to 5 months of age, the baby or fetal hemoglobin is replaced by adult hemoglobin and the cells begin to sickle. : (Falvo, 2011 p.…show more content…
Because sickle cell happens at an early age the emotions of the child not being able to play as long, or do as much their peers brings on depression and maybe even isolation. The sickle cell patient has a lot of hospitalizations throughout this disease so it being such and unpredictable disease it is hard to plan anything, or even commit to anything or anyone for a long period of time. • Two research projects concerning Sickle Cell. The location of the research projects, and the numbers of people/patients involved in the research studies. The first research project that was found was in Boston MA at The Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease, directed by Martin Steinberg, M.D., and supports the highest quality of patient care in an attempt to make Boston Medical Center (BMC) the treatment facility of choice for Boston-area patients with sickle cell disease. The Center also promotes interactive basic and clinical research and patient and professional educational activities. The research data was very overwhelming, it was not clear how to read it but in this report there was some significant information that was interesting. According to the BMC article,” Fetal hemoglobin (HbF): Severe β thalassemia is a devastating disease of public health magnitude in many parts of the world. HbF can

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