What are these circumstances that can give rise to sickle cell crisis?
A 12: Fever, fatigue, high altitude (as when some SS person embarks a plane at Accra [sea-level] and disembarks the next day at Addis Ababa or Nairobi [7-8,000 ft]), diarrhoea and vomiting causing dehydration, prolonged squatting or curling up in a chair for hours thereby trapping blood cells in the legs without benefit of oxygenation in the lungs [the so-called tourniquet effect – see July Person History on this website], underwater swimming, pregnancy and prolonged labour, smoking, alcohol, opiates like morphine and heroin which suppress breathing, severe exercise, the rainy season especially when caught in the rain, cold weather, some personal idiosyncrasies like ‘eating rice and beans’, severe asthmatic attack, infections of organs like the the lung (pneumonia), urinary tract and gall bladder. Malaria is the commonest cause of sickle cell crisis in African countries. Sore throat, ear ache, tooth ache, leg ulcers are other infections that can spark off a sickle cell crisis. Poorly a
