{"id":2554,"date":"2026-06-21T13:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=2554"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T12:26:15","slug":"what-is-sickle-cell-anemia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-sickle-cell-anemia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sickle Cell Anaemia"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Sickle Cell Anaemia Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the President of India said that the country would eradicate sickle cell anemia well before the government-set target of 2047.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Sickle Cell Anaemia<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>group of inherited blood cell disorders<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that affect hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells (RBCs) that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>How Does it Affect Blood Flow?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, RBCs are <\/span><b>disc-shaped and flexible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> enough to move easily through the blood vessels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People with SCD have <\/span><b>atypical hemoglobin molecules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> called <\/span><b>hemoglobin S,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which can distort RBCs into a sickle, or crescent, shape.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When RBCs sickle, they do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of the body.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sickle-shaped cells can also stick to vessel walls, causing a blockage that slows or stops the flow of blood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>What causes it?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cause of SCD is a <\/span><b>defective gene, called a sickle cell gene.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A person will be born with SCD only if two genes are inherited\u2014one from the mother and one from the father.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are born with one sickle cell gene, it\u2019s called sickle cell trait. People with sickle cell trait are generally healthy, but they can pass the defective gene on to their children.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Symptoms<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Signs and symptoms of sickle cell disease usually begin in early childhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Early stage:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Extreme tiredness or fussiness from anemia (low number of RBCs), painfully swollen hands and feet, and jaundice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Later stage:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Severe pain, anemia, organ damage, and infections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Treatments<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><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><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there are treatments that can help relieve symptoms, lessen complications, and prolong life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/gene-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Gene therapy<\/strong><\/a> is also being explored as another potential cure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-to-eradicate-sickle-cell-anaemia-before-2047-target-president-murmu\/article71123039.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sickle Cell Anaemia is a group of inherited blood cell disorders that affect hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells (RBCs) that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. Read more about Sickle Cell Anaemia, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":109328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,8250,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-2554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-sickle-cell-anaemia","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554","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=2554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109423,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions\/109423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}