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SICKLE CELL ANEMIA ABOUT SICKLE CELL ANEMIA Sickle Cell disease is a serious genetic blood disorder that causes the patient extreme suffering and requires immense care and support. To understand better what Sickle Cell disease is, let us imagine our body to be like a city. The blood in our body has the function of supplying oxygen to different parts of this city. For this purpose our blood has small components called red blood cells, which can be imagined as a car or a supply van which has to travel the city to supply oxygen. This oxygen sits like a passenger in this car (red blood cell) and the seat which carries this oxygen is called hemoglobin. So, this passenger (oxygen) is taken on a ride through the city (body), occupying its seat (hemoglobin) in the car (red blood cell). In a person with Sickle Cell disease this seat (hemoglobin), unfortunately, is defective to the extent that it modifies the shape of the entire car (red blood cell) to a sickle shape and decrease its ability to carry its passenger (oxygen) efficiently. Sickle Cell disease is a genetic disease and is therefore congenital (present since birth) but starts manifesting itself usually around the 6th month of life. It is acquired through one’s parents who themselves may or may not suffer from the disease. Current estimates say that roughly a quarter of a million children are born with the disease every year world wide. It’s a major problem in Africa, the Mediterranean countries, Arabia, South Asia (which includes India). With new advances in medical sciences, more and more people with Sickle Cell disease are now living up to ages of 50 or 60. 90% patients currently survive to 20 years of age and 50% survive beyond the fifth decade.