Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

Continued from last week- Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a group of inherited (genetic) disorders of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin moves oxygen throughout our bodies. The first one of these diseases, Sickle Cell Anemia was discovered in this country 110 years ago although it had been here centuries before that. It came with slavery from Africa. It is a chronic vascular disease with many acute and chronic complications generally marked by excruciating pain brought on by blockages in small blood vessels. People with SCD have less hemoglobin as a result of sickle cells that don’t last long causing anemia; and sickle blood moves less oxygen to the many parts of the body where it is needed. Virtually every part of a person’s body is affected. People are living longer than ever with SCD; however, they very often are also living sicker. Indeed, people are still dying from this disease, here and across the world.