What is the difference between Sickle Cell Anaemia and Sickle Cell Disease?
A 9: The Haemoglobin ‘S’ gene is not the only ‘abnormal’ haemoglobin gene which causes illness when inherited together with another haemoglobin S gene. Haemoglobin C, for instance, with its highest concentration in the world found in Upper Ghana and Burkina Faso, when inherited together with sickle haemoglobin S produces cold season rheumatism (sickle cell crisis) in the person with ‘SC’ phenotype [S from 1 parent, C from the other]. The haemoglobin S and C genes in West Africa are so common that 1 in 3 of the inhabitants has one trait or the other. Any West African visiting this web site has a 1 in 3 chance of being AS (one parent donating ‘S’ gene, and the other ‘A’) or AC (one parent passing on ‘C’ and the other ‘A’, making them AS or AC phenotypes and (if they have not had their blood tested) they do not know it. Take Dr Konotey-Ahulu, for instance; his mother was Sickle Cell Trait [AS] and she did not know it, and his father Haemoglobin C Trait [AC], and he did not know it. They h
