Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
World Sickle Cell Day – 19th June is a United Nation’s recognised day to raise awareness of sickle cell at a national and international level. Sickle cell disorders are a group of illnesses which affect your red blood cells. Sickle cell is a genetic condition, which means it is passed on from your parents and you are born with it; you cannot catch it from other people. On December 22, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that recognised sickle cell disease as a public health problem. The UN designated June 19 of every year as World Sickle Cell Awareness Day in order to raise awareness about the disorder on the national and international level. Creating awareness can facilitate access to education, management, surveillance and treatment for sickle-cell anaemia. According to medical experts, SCD affects millions of people all around the world including both children and adults.
Sickle cell warriors must have more positive discussions about health. We should stop emphasizing what we can’t do because of our health and instead celebrate all the things we’ve done and can do despite our health. The most common type of SCD is known to be Sickle cell anaemia (SCA). SCA results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blood cells of the human body. People with this disease have atypical hemoglobin molecules called hemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent shape. This blocks blood flow and oxygen from reaching all parts of the body.
There are many illnesses and diseases in the world that affect people in various kinds of ways, and while some are well known, there are others that are not so popular. According to Global Burden of Disease (GBD) a global research programme that estimates mortality and burden from major diseases across the globe— the prevalence and incidence of sickle cell disease in India in 2017 and 2018 was 1,104,634 and 195,166 respectively. The disease in India occurs predominantly in eastern Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, western Odisha and in pockets of the Nilgiri Hills in north Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Sickle cell disease (SCD), which is a group of blood disorders that affect a person’s red blood cells, is a genetic condition that is passed on from parents. The disorder causes normal round and flexible blood cells to become stiff and sickle shaped, which in turn stops the blood cells and the oxygen they carry from moving freely around the body. Symptoms of sickle cell will start showing from around 5 to 6 months of age, and along with the pain a person can also suffer from anemia, swelling in the hands and feet, bacterial infections, blindness, bone damage and stroke.
WSCD is an opportunity to raise awareness of sickle cell disease and support those living with sickle cell, celebrating their experiences and achievements, mostly in such a difficult emergency due to the pandemic, during which they are exposed to a higher risk of complications. Let us show our support also by donating to Sickle Cell Society and by encouraging others to do the same. Together with education and awareness, we can remove the stigma associated with this condition. Can’t we be the voice of the thousands of people who are diagnosed with this condition.
(The author is a freelancer and can be reached at [email protected])
