How do people get sickle cell disease?
The type of hemoglobin a person makes depends on what traits are inherited from his or her parents, much like hair or eye color is passed on. To get the hemoglobins that causes sickle cell disease, a child must inherit a sickle cell gene from both parents. A child who inherits one normal gene from a parent and one sickle cell gene from the other is a “carrier.” A child born to parents who both have the sickle cell trait (but not the disease) has a 25 percent change of getting sickle cell disease. A child born to one parent with the disease and one who has the trait has a 50 percent chance of having sickle cell disease or sickle cell trait.
