Sickle Cell Anemia Treatment Cost In South Africa

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited red blood cells disorders in which the red blood cells are not healthy enough to carry oxygen through the body, red blood cells can easily move throughout the blood vessels.

can get sickle cell anemia from when you inherit sickle cell from both your parents. When both your parents are carriers of sickle cell gene then you can get sickle cell anemia.

The organs affected by sickle cell anemia are the liver, heart, kidney, gallbladder, eyes, bones and joints.  It can cause recurrent infections, symptoms of sickle cell anemia usually appear 5 months of age. Some of the symptoms of sickle cell anemia includes anemia, episodes of pain, swelling in hands and feet, fever, pale skin, frequent infections etc.

If both mother and father are carrier then child may get affected from sickle cell anemia.

Complications of sickle cell anemia includes stroke, acute chest syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, organ damage, blindness, ulcers in leg, gall bladder stone and pulmonary hypertension.

Sickle cell anemia is being diagnosed by blood test, blood test checks for the defective form of hemoglobin causes sickle cell anemia. Adults and children can also be tested or sickle cell anemia.

Sickle cell anemic avoids the episodes of pain, relieves the symptoms and prevents complication. The treatment of sickle cell anemia included medications and blood transfusion.

The surgical procedure of sickle cell anemia involves blood transfusion, in red blood cell transfusion red blood cells are being removed from the supply of donated blood. This increases the supply of red blood cells.

Blood transfusion takes around 90 to 120 minutes to be completed and it can even be done in smaller children who are younger than 5 years.

The process of stem cell transplant usually takes around 3 weeks to be done.

Stem cell transplant is also known as bone marrow transplant the process of stem cell transplant involves replacing the bone marrow of the affected person with the healthy bone marrow of the donor.

Stem cell transplant involves long hospital stay, after getting transplant you will need to get drug for preventing rejection of the donated stem cells. In some cases, your body may reject the transplant which may result in some life-threatening complications.

If you have sickle cell anemia by seeing a genetic counselor before you trying to conceive will help you in understanding the risk of having a child with sickle cell anemia.

Red blood cells usually live for about 120 days before they need to be replaced. But sickle cells usually die in 10 to 20 days, leaving a shortage of red blood cells,.