What is Severe Chronic Neutropenia (SCN)?
SCN affects the white cells in the blood, but does not affect other blood cells. There are two main types of white cells: neutrophils, which fight bacterial infection and lymphocytes, which fight viral infection. Children with SCN have very few neutrophils in their blood and so are at an increased risk of bacterial infection. There are four major types of SCN: congenital, cyclical, idiopathic and autoimmune. More information about each follows: Congenital neutropenia Congenital neutropenia is a very rare disease with around 650 people worldwide known to have the condition. In general it affects between one or two people per million population and seems to be more common in Caucasian (white) people. The exact cause is uncertain. We do know that in some cases it is an inherited disease and that it can run in families. In other cases, it can occur for no completely understood reason. Examination of the bone marrow (effectively the blood cell factory) of children with SCN shows that there
