What I have learnt- The Sickle Cell Series- Episode 1

Sickle cell anemia and sickle cell disease- Different or the same?

When you hear SS, what will you say it is: Sickle cell anemia or Sickle cell disease or both? I'd like to know what your thought is.

Sickle cell disease is a group of diseases that affect the red blood cells of a person negatively. There is something in the red blood cells called hemoglobin and what it does is carry oxygen throughout your body.
In all sickle cell diseases, this hemoglobin has problems, so it doesn't carry oxygen well through the body as it should.

Sickle cell anemia is what is called SS of HbSS, the one you probably know well.
Now this sickle cell anemia is an example under sickle cell diseases.
SS(sickle cell anemia) is not the only example under sickle cell diseases. Another example which some may have heard of is SC. Have you heard of SC before as a type of genotype?

So in short, we can say Sickle cell anemia is a type of sickle cell disease, but it is not the only type. There are other sickle cell diseases that affect the red blood cells, but let's stick to these two common ones.

If I ask you now, can you say SC is sickle cell anemia or a type of sickle cell disease?

This will be all for today’s episode. Can you see how brief it is? We aren’t here for plenty plenty things, just one point. See you next time we have another episode, and tell me if you learnt something new.

P.S:I just learnt this difference two days ago with all my gra gra on liking to talk about sickle cell anemia.