Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia

Ashwin Bhat

Period 3

5/10/10

Introduction

Sickle shaped blood cells, crippling pain, and major losses of blood cells are regular problems when one has a certain disease. What disease is this? These are frequent issues when a person has sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia is commonly found around the world. Sickle cell anemia affects over sixty-thousand African Americans, and it also affects a number of people from Mediterranean or Middle Eastern descent. Many Americans have the sickle cell trait, and though they may not seem to be having any symptoms, there are possibilities of developing them. About two million Americans have this condition (Challem). By now, one maybe wondering, what is sickle cell anemia? Sickle cell anemia, a chronic, hereditary blood disease characterized by the changing of the shape of red blood vessels, has distinctive history, symptoms, and treatments.

History

Sickle cell disease has a rather unique history. The first person found to have sickle cell anemia was Walter Clement Noel, who died from chest problems that resulted from the disease at age thirty-two. His doctor, James Herrick, reported observations of Noel’s strange case, becoming the first person to publish a medical report on the new condition that was later named sickle cell anemia (Silverstein, Silverstein, and Silverstein Nunn 15-18).

So, sickle cell anemia was first discovered in 1904. Noel was a dental student, who came to a hospital in Chicago, complaining about headaches, heart palpitations, and muscle pain (“Sickle Cell Secrets”). Palpitations are when a person is conscious of the beating of their heart, the beating usually being irregular when this happens.

The actual term sickle cell anemia was first used in 1922 by Dr. Verne Masson of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, (Silverstein, Silverstein, and Silverstein Nunn 19).

Sickle cell anemia has been found most...