Sickle cell is on the rise in some communities. Once thought of as a disease that affects only Black Americans, sickle-cell anemia and related blood diseases can also be traced to countries as diverse as Burma, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the Philippines. Globalization and mixed marriages mean more people are at risk than ever before. Last year, Neighborhood Health Clinics tested 400 Burmese refugees for inherited blood disorders, and another 800 are expected to be tested this year, said Belinda Dean, director of the clinics’ sickle-cell program. About 5 percent have tested positive this year for an inherited disease called hemoglobin E, less serious than sickle cell. “I’ve had people come in here who have a child that tests positive … and they say, ‘There is no way I could be a carrier,’ ” Dean said. “They may not know everything about their ancestry. They may not realize that someone in the family was from Africa or the Mediterranean or Southeast Asia.” About 2 million Americans, including one in 12 Blacks, carry the sickle cell trait, according to the federal National Institutes of Health. For a carrier, there are no or few symptoms, but a child born to two parents with the trait has a one in four chance of developing sickle cell disease. If one parent has the trait and the other doesn’t, all the children will have the trait. If one parent has sickle-cell anemia and the other has the trait, each child born to the couple has a 50 percent chance of having the trait or the disease. Perhaps the silver lining in the increase of people at risk for the trait or the disease is that more funding for sickle-cell research and related diseases could become available. Research using skin stem cells to cure mice with sickle-cell anemia has shown promise, as have bone marrow transplants. Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health committed to improving and restructuring its sickle-cell research program.

TAGS: cell, Disease, Sickle

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