Healthcare has recently become a very polarizing and contentious issue within the United States. Healthcare expenditures as a percentage of GDP are currently percent. Over the next decade these expenditures are expected to be 20% of GDP or roughly $6.2 Billion. COVID-19 has only exacerbated many of the prevailing trends surrounding healthcare and its subsequent treatment. For one, the government has passed the affordable care act which attempts to lower healthcare costs through a series of legislative efforts. In addition, governments are attempting to redirect healthcare expenditures to focus primarily on outcomes as oppose to simply treatment. This quality over quantity approach is very apparent when revieing sickle cell anemia and its overall complications. Sickle cell treatment typically costs $1,389 per month.
Sickle Cell Anemia is actually a group of interrelated disorders that are often inherited at birth. Here, the disorder results from not having enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Normally, red blood cells are round and circular shaped to allow for seamless passage through various blood vessels. However, with sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells are shaped like a crescent moon and are much more rigid. Due to their shape, these blood cells are much more likely to clog small arteries within the body. This can cause complications as blook flow is restricted to various parts of the body. This could potentially cause a litany of disorders and complications. A number of these complication can have severe adverse effects on the individual. A list of symptoms is provided below. Unfortunately, there is no cure for sickle cell anemia, which means people must incur treatment for the remainder of there life. As noted in the introductory paragraph, these costs can be very large and can often result in financial hardship or difficulty (Murayama, 1973)
1. Adverse Vision Problems Due to the nature...
This can potentially lead to vision impairment as the retina within the eye becomes damaged.2. Higher probability of infections Sickle cells have a large probability of damaging the spleen, which is directly responsible of healing infections within the body. As the spleen is damages or impaired, the body is much more vulnerable to infections. Depending on the overall nature of the infection, this could cause still further complications within the individual depending on their diet and nutrition habits
3. Frequent episodes of pain A very common symptom of sickle cell anemia is short but frequent episodes of pain. This again occurs to the ability of sickle cells to block, clog, or otherwise restrict blood flow to major arteries within the body. This frequently occurs in many of the small blood vessels located in the check, abdomen or joints. The length and frequency of these episodes can vary dramatically. Some individuals may only experience these episodes a few times a year. Other may experience these episodes much more frequently. Depending on the severity, individuals may also need to go to the hospital for extended period of time
4. Anemia The symptom is what characterizes sickle cell anemia. Anemia is rapid degradation of red blood cells within the body. Typically, red blood cells last for roughly 120 days. Sickle cells, in contrast, live for only 20 days, causing a severe shortage of red blood cells within the body.
As noted above, sickle cell anemia can cause varying degree of complications for an individual. These complications are often inherited with no full cure for the disease. As a result, individuals suffering from sickle cell must deal with it for their entire life.
The cause of sickle cell anemia is a gene mutation. Typically, the gene communicates with the body, telling it to make the iron-rich compound that makes blood red called hemoglobin. This ultimately allows red blood cells to carry oxygen…
References
1. Beutler, Ernest. "The Effect of In Vivo Modification of Sickle Cell Disease." Clinical Research. 1960, 8: 101
2. Itano, Harvey A. and James V. Neel. "A New Inherited Abnormality of Human Hemoglobin." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 1950, 36: 613-17
3. Murayama, Makio and Robert Nalbandian. Sickle Cell Hemoglobin: Molecule to Man. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973
For example, in the case of sickle beta thalassemia, the individual has inherited a gene for hemoglobin S. from one parent and a gene for beta-thalassemia from the other. Or, in the instance of SC disease, the individual has inherited a gene for hemoglobin S. from one parent and a gene for hemoglobin C. from the other. The sickle cell trait in heterozygous carriers confers the resistance to malaria phenotype
These crises are a direct result of way in which the deformed red blood cells adhere to both each other and the insides of the blood vessel walls, blocking tissues from receiving oxygen. The disease is prevalent across some parts of Africa, the Middle East and India, which is due to the way in which the heterozygous form of the condition offers carriers a degree of protection against malaria,
Sickle Cell Anemia There are both advantages and disadvantages of having sickle cell anemia. How much benefit a person gets from sickle cell anemia's advantages, however, largely depends on where that person is located and what his or her environment is. The same concept applies to the disadvantages of this condition, although to a lesser extent. The root of the advantages and disadvantages of this disease pertain to its specific form
Sickle Cell (Rough Draft) Sickle cell anemia is a blood disease that causes badly formed red blood cells. The disease is genetec. Mostly people from Africa or other coutries around the Mediterraean Sea get it. In the United States, African-Americans are most likely to have it (Howard, 1995). Red blood cells are the blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. When a person has sickle-cell anemia the hemoglobon in the cell
Sickle cell anemia according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health - NLM/NIH (2013), "is a disease in which your body produces abnormally shaped red blood cells." As the NLM/NIH further point out, the cells produced in this case ordinarily have a crescent-like shape. The red blood cells of an individual usually have a disk-like shape. It is this disk like shape that enhances and eases their
Sickle Cell Anemia As an inherited condition, it is presence of hemoglobin which tends to be abnormal that brings about sickle cell anemia. In basic terms, hemoglobin is a red blood cell protein whose main function is carrying oxygen. It is this hemoglobin abnormality that informs 'sickled' or distorted red blood cells whose survival is compromised as a result of the distortion and fragility. Though the prevalence of the condition largely
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