Facts and figures about sickle cell disease:
There are several types of sickle cell disease. The most common are: sickle cell anemia, Sickle-Hemoglobin C Disease, Sickle Beta-Plus Thalassemia and Sickle Beta-Zero Thalassemia.
When both parents have the sickle cell trait, they have a one-in-four chance of having a child with sickle cell disease with each pregnancy.
An estimated 100,000 people have sickle cell disease in the U.S.; 3 million carry the sickle cell trait
*Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
It started out with a cold, then pneumonia crept into Madison Overstreet’s lungs.
Three years ago, Katrina Overstreet watched with growing concern as her daughter took longer to recover from her illness. Madison, now six, was diagnosed with acute chest syndrome, a condition common among people with sickle cell disease.
She was at greater risk of developing the condition because of the sickle cell disease. With acute chest syndrome the lungs can be damaged, causing them to fill with fluid and sometimes leads to respiratory failure.
Acute chest syndrome is “a fairly common problem and one of the most serious” for people with the inherited red blood cell disease, said Dr. Clinton H. Joiner, director of hematology at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and professor of pediatrics at Emory University’s School of Medicine.”It’s one of the leading causes of death among adults with sickle cell disease.”
The center and Emory recently received nearly $10 million in funds to continue research into sickle cell disease and to find a preventive treatment for the lung damage that can be deadly for people with sickle cell disease.
Emory and the Aflac center were strong contenders for the grants because, in part, it already treats a significant number of patients with acute chest syndrome such as Madison.
“We know that when they come down with a cold, a bad cough or congestion, we really need to pay close attention,” said Overstreet, whose son, Landon, also has sickle cell disease. Overstreet doesn’t think there was lasting damage.
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute awarded the five-year grant to Emory and the Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s to provide critical research to find a treatment for acute chest syndrome.
Sickle cell disease is so named because sometimes the red blood cells become hard and crescent shaped and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels, which can lead to painful episodes and organ damage.
In Georgia, an estimated 7,300 people have sickle cell disease. In the United States, it’s most prevalent among African Americans. However, globally, if may also affect people of Central and West African, Middle Eastern, Indian and Mediterranean descent.
“Anything that’s going to help clients with sickle cell disease is a plus for the community,” said Jackie George, a certified counselor at the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia.
Overstreet’s son has never developed the syndrome, but she is always watchful.
She and her husband, both teachers, carry the sickle cell trait. Their children were diagnosed two weeks after their births.
Overstreet knew even then what could lay ahead. A cousin and an uncle both had sickle cell disease. Her uncle died in his 20s. Her cousin was in and out of the hospital and often in pain. “I was kind of afraid that they (her children) would go through the same thing. My mom comforted me. She said that was a long time ago and that there’s been a lot of research and it’s not as bad as it used to be. Research is always good. Even the research they did in the early 2000s has been beneficial to my kids.”
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