Is Sickle Cell Anemia lethal?
It can be, but it usually isn’t in and of itself. The malformed blood cells can get stuck in blood vessels and restrict blood circulation. Most of the time, they only get stuck in capillaries, because these blood vessels are only wide enough to fit one cell through, but the sickle cells (depending which way they are turned) are typically wider than a normal blood cell. This can be extremely painful, but is not lethal. However, as the patient ages and his/her blood vessels become clogged, sickle cells can catch on the clogs and contribute to their progress. Although it generally does not cause them on its own, sickle cell anemia increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Also, people with sickle cell anemia are at much higher risk of childhood strokes than are the general population. From a genetics perspective, sickle cell anemia is a really cool disease because people who have only one gene for it have what is called sickle cell trait. The people make a mix of normal and defective
