Sickle Cell

Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease of the red blood cells. It can be passed from one generation to the next and affects mainly black people in America. It is an inherited illness and is not contagious. It is called sickle cell because some of the red blood cells are long and shaped like sickles. Normal red blood cells are round. About 1 in 500 Black Americans are born with Sickle Cell Anemia. Sickle Cell Trait is not a disease. It is a carrier state of the disease in which a gene for abnormal hemoglobin is inherited. About 1 in 10 African Americans are born with Sickle Cell Trait and locally, 1 in 5 African Americans in Northwest Indiana have either the trait or the disease.

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JACOWA 

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Groups > Activism & Non-Profit

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created:

3/31/09

updated:

1/30/10