Normal blood cells, left, and the blood cells in sickle cell disease, which do not flow smoothly through the circulatory system.A study conducted in Cameroon by a University of Cape Town professor may offer hope for people with sickle cell anaemia , a disease which affects hundreds of thousands of people in Africa.
Sickle cell anaemia is the most serious in a group of disorders known as sickle cell disease. It is an inherited red blood cell disorder in which there aren’t enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. It is caused by a mutation in a single gene, responsible for production of the protein haemoglobin. Making up 70% of the content of red blood cells, haemoglobin is essential for transporting oxygen throughout the body.
“Among the 300,000 babies born with the condition every year, 80% are in Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Wonkam. “It is, in essence, an African disease.”Wonkam says it has been shown that due to the lack of medical interventions in most African settings, at least 50% of African children with SCA will die before their fifth year.
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