Monday, May 4, 2009

Genetic Disorder: Sickle Cell Anemia

The disease sickle cell anemia was discovered and explained in 1904. The symptoms of this disease restricts blood flow to an organ which can cause ishemia pain. It can also cause organ damage. The signs of this disease can be fever, chest pain, difficulty breathing and pulmonary infiltrate. However,the treatments for this disease can be hydration and analgesics. The people affected with disease can be both male and female and are expected to live from 42-48 years of age. This disease can affect the world population with 1 in 5,000 chances. The population that is most vulnerable to this disease are the African Americans and 1 in 500 blacks are affected, in addition one in 36,00 Hispanic children have sickle cell anemia. The molecular level for this disease is that copies found in this disease is only one copy of the genes, or mutation. In order to develop more treatments they need to understand how the sickle cell anemia effects the bones, so a medicine can be created and therefore stop the disease from destroying bone marrow.My opinion on this horrendous disease is that it is unfair and cruel for people to undergo such a painful disease, however I hope that there will be more cures for this disease that are much less painful.

Click here to see the information about sickle cell Anemia.

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