Research for Sickle Cell Disease started in 1910.When a patient from the West Indies had anemia characterized by oddly shaped red blood cells. A Chicago physician, James B. Herrick identified the red blood cells as sickled shaped. It was discovered that the sickling of the cells was associated with the low oxygen in 1927 by Hahn and Gillespie. A medical student at John Hopkins, Sherman, noticed the birefringence of deoxygenated red blood cells, recommended that low oxygen adjusted the hemoglobin structure in the molecule. In 1948 multiple individuals made discoveries. Pediatric hematologist in New York, Janet Watson, suggested the insufficiency of sickle cells in the peripheral blood of newborns was due to the fetal hemoglobin in the red blood
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Hemoglobin job is to allow red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Abnormal hemoglobin causes the red blood cell to become rigid, sticky, and misshapen. The sickle cell gene can be referred to as Autosomal recessive inheritance, because it is passed down through generations in a pattern of inheritance. A child can be affected by sickle cell is the mother and father passes down a defective gene. If only one parent passes the sickle cell gene the child will have the trait; sickle cell trait produces both normal and sickle cell hemoglobin. People who have sickle cell trait will not any symptoms. Individuals that have the disease pass the down gene down to their children (Mayo Clinic …show more content…
Penicillin is antibiotic that help prevents infections. It reduces the chances of having severe infections caused by pneumococcus bacteria in children, but some doctors stop the medicine after the age of 5. People that have had their spleen removed or people with hemoglobin SS or Sb thalassemia generally continue the antibiotic throughout their lives (“How is Sickle Cell Disease Treated?”). The next medicine that is commonly used when treating sickle cell disease is known as Hydroxyurea. It is very beneficial to most people but 40% of patients do not respond which results in progressive organ failure (Vichinsky). This medication is used to interfere with the sickling process. Evidence has shown that decreased pain episodes, hospitalization, and blood transfusions in adults, but the evidence was not as strong in children
Hemoglobin job is to allow red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Abnormal hemoglobin causes the red blood cell to become rigid, sticky, and misshapen. The sickle cell gene can be referred to as Autosomal recessive inheritance, because it is passed down through generations in a pattern of inheritance. A child can be affected by sickle cell is the mother and father passes down a defective gene. If only one parent passes the sickle cell gene the child will have the trait; sickle cell trait produces both normal and sickle cell hemoglobin. People who have sickle cell trait will not any symptoms. Individuals that have the disease pass the down gene down to their children (Mayo Clinic …show more content…
Penicillin is antibiotic that help prevents infections. It reduces the chances of having severe infections caused by pneumococcus bacteria in children, but some doctors stop the medicine after the age of 5. People that have had their spleen removed or people with hemoglobin SS or Sb thalassemia generally continue the antibiotic throughout their lives (“How is Sickle Cell Disease Treated?”). The next medicine that is commonly used when treating sickle cell disease is known as Hydroxyurea. It is very beneficial to most people but 40% of patients do not respond which results in progressive organ failure (Vichinsky). This medication is used to interfere with the sickling process. Evidence has shown that decreased pain episodes, hospitalization, and blood transfusions in adults, but the evidence was not as strong in children