Sickle Cell Anemia Treatment In India

Sickle cell anemia is a sickle cell disease. This is an inherited red blood cell disorder where the red blood cells in the body are not healthy enough to carry oxygen throughout the body. The normal red blood cells are round in shape and hence can easily move through the blood vessels. The abnormal once are sickle-shaped or of the shape of a crescent moon; hence the name of the disease. This particular shape makes the locomotion of the blood cells difficult within the rounded blood vessels. Hence the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood drastically reduces.
This disease is an inherited one—the parents of the patient having the disease pass on the mutated gene to the cells. But the parents need not necessarily show any signs or symptoms of the disease as it is recessive in their bodies but is active in the body of their ward.
What Is Sickle Cell Anemia?
The sickle cell anemia patient has an abnormality in the protein, hemoglobin, in the red blood cell, which is responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body. The people who have this disease inherit two abnormal hemoglobin genes from each of their parents. This hemoglobin is called S or sickle hemoglobin. Depending upon this, the sickle cell disease can be classified into the following types:
Haemoglobin SB0 thalassemia.
Haemoglobin SB+ thalassemia.
Haemoglobin SC
Haemoglobin SD
Haemoglobin SE
Haemoglobin SS
In all the above types of sickle cell diseases at least one of the two abnormal cells causes the body to make the hemoglobin S. But when both the inherited genes are mutated the cell has hemoglobin SS, this disease is called sickle cell anemia. It is one of the most common sickle cell diseases. Other common diseases are Haemoglobin SC and Haemoglobin SB. The diseases Haemoglobin SD and Haemoglobin SE are rare and not very common.