SICKLE CELL DISEASE

Sickle Cell Disease



Sickle Cell Disease

Introduction

This document will explain Sickle cell disease in global content. The document has provided with an overview of the disease and its threat to the world. In the next section the prevalence of the disease is discussed that includes the details of those areas in which the disease is prevalent. The paper also discusses the social, behavioural and biological factors that are related to the increasing threat of the disease. In addition, the strategies are provided to reduce the risks of the threat by using nursing strategies that are based on the evidence based practice.

There are many studies that have been carried from the last few decades in order to understand about the history of the sickle cell disease and its management. The approaches of the management of disease had the purpose of the prevention and the treatment of the complications of the diseases. There are several social and genetic factors that can help in the understanding of the methods of dealing with the disease. The barriers are provided due to which the disease cannot be reduced and the evidence based practices are also discussed in detail that can be helpful in the reduction of the prevalence of the disease and its proper management.

Overview

Sickle cell disease is an autosomal recessive type of genetic disorder and it is the most common of the hemoglobinopathies. It is a disorder of the structure of hemoglobin. The primary symptom of the disease is pain. The severe form of the sickle cell disease is homozygous sickle cell anemia which takes place when the defective gene is passed down from both the parents. Other genetic modifications which can cause variation in the genes are sickle cell-hemoglobin C and two different types of sickle cell-beta thalassemia. It is shown by the case control studies that those people who have traits of the sickle cell have a protection for the disease of malaria (Ayi et al. 2004, pp.3364). People who suffer with the homozygous disease can experience chronic disease in childhood. This was explained by the study that was conducted to identify the relation between th severity and adjustment of the disease (Hurtig et al. 1989, pp.117).

The sickle cell disease mainly occurs in the people who have their origins from Africa but it can also occur in the people of regions near Mediterranean Sea, Asia and Middle East. The disease occurs due to social, economic and healthcare differences. According to a survey, African Americans are poor and cannot avail the health care facilities due to which the mortality rates are also higher in them (Platt et al. 1994, pp.1639). There have been many advances in the healthcare due to which the disease is controlled for example; prophylactic penicillin has been developed for children. The prophylactic penicillin has enabled survival to adulthood. The research on the life patterns has shown that life expectancy has also been found to be increasing to the age of 50 years due to the ...