{"id":23247,"date":"2026-05-23T11:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=23247"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:55:37","slug":"sickle-cell-disease-scd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sickle-cell-disease-scd\/","title":{"rendered":"Sickle Cell Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Sickle Cell Disease Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent study by the AIIMS Bhopal has stressed the need for early and advanced health screening in children suffering from sickle cell disease (SCD).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a group of <\/span><b>inherited blood cell disorders<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><b>affect hemoglobin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>molecule in <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/red-blood-cells\/\" target=\"_blank\">red blood cells<\/a> (RBCs) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>delivers oxygen to cells <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">throughout the body.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SCD can cause episodes of <\/span><b>severe pain<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and lead to <\/span><b>life-threatening complications.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most <\/span><b>common and severe type <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of SCD is <\/span><b>sickle cell anemia.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>How Does it Affect Blood Flow?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Normally, RBCs are disc-shaped and flexible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> enough to move easily through the blood vessels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>People with SCD<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have <\/span><b>atypical hemoglobin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> molecules called <\/span><b>hemoglobin S, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which can <\/span><b>distort RBCs into a sickle, or crescent, shape.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When RBCs sickle, they <\/span><b>do not bend or move easily <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and can <\/span><b>block blood flow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the rest of the body.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sickle-shaped cells can <\/span><b>also stick to vessel walls, causing a blockage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that slows or stops the flow of blood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>What causes it?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cause of SCD is a <\/span><b>defective gene, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called a <\/span><b>sickle cell gene.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A person will be born with SCD <\/span><b>only if two genes are inherited<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><b>one from the mother and one from the father.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are born with <\/span><b>one sickle cell gene<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it&#8217;s called <\/span><b>sickle cell trait<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. People with sickle cell trait are<\/span><b> generally healthy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but they can <\/span><b>pass the defective gene on to their children.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Symptoms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Signs and symptoms of sickle cell disease usually<\/span><b> begin in early childhood.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Early stage:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Extreme <\/span><b>tiredness or fussiness from anemia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (low number of RBCs), painfully s<\/span><b>wollen hands and feet,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>jaundice<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Later stage: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Severe pain,<\/span><b> anemia, organ damage, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and infections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Treatments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>bone marrow transplant<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (stem cell transplant) can cure SCD.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there are treatments that can help relieve symptoms, lessen complications, and prolong life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Gene therapy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also being explored as another<\/span><b> potential cure.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>UK<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recently became the <\/span><b>first country to approve gene therapy treatment for SCD.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/health\/aiims-bhopal-study-urges-advanced-screenings-for-children-with-sickle-cell-disease-11530443\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>NDTV<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sickle Cell Disease is a group of inherited blood cell disorders that affect hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen through the body. Read more about Sickle Cell Disease, Causes, Symptoms, Treatments, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":104667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3716],"class_list":{"0":"post-23247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-sickle-cell-disease","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23247"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104731,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247\/revisions\/104731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}