World Sickle Cell Day
PatientTalk.Org are proud to support this initiative which was created by the United Nations.
The objective is to raise awareness of sickle cell disease across the globe. You can do your bit by sharing the graphic above.
I’d also strongly recommend that you visit Nita Thompson’s World Sickle Cell Day which fills in a lot of background on the day.
It would be great if you could use these hashtags when you post #sicklestrength, #sicklethecycle.
Sickle cell anaemia or sickle cell disease is a genetic ( ie inherited) blood disorder whereby your red blood cells that move vital oxygen to different parts of our bodies do not develop in a normal fashion. It seems to be have a very high prevalence in people from Africa or of African descent. It is call Sickle cell because the blood cells are shaped like a sickle rather that the conventional round shape.
These abnormal red blood cells can then clog up sections of blood vessels leading to period of extreme pain which are called a sickle cell crisis or vaso-occlusive crisis.
For more information please have a look at the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America’s excellent web site.
