Sickle cell enemia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sickle cell enemia - Research Paper ExampleThe disorder shortens the life expectation of patients with few living beyond the age of fifty.Since its discovery, doctors have worked towards developing a cure for the disease. The cure has been sturdy and only methods for reducing hardness of the disorder such as taking penicillin and folic acid and the use of hydroxyurea for inducive treatment of the disorder. Other management practices include blood transfusion therapy that raises the deem of red blood cells in a patient. B cardinal marrow transplants in children have also been proven to significantly reduce severity of the disorder (Woman Cured of SCA 6).In June 2012, researchers from the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Science Systems, announced that they had developed a new transplant technique that successfully cures a sickle-cell anemia patient. The stem cell transplant requires one to have a genetically-compatible and uninfected sibling. The donor is first given drug s that cause an increase in the number of the stem cells in their blood. The donors blood is then taken and processed and then stored in sub-zero temperatures. At the time of the transplant, the blood is thawed and transfused in the patient ( Woman Cured of SCA 6). The transplant which is know as leukapheresis has been carried in at least 25 patients, 22 of whom have been completely cured. The therapy remains by far the most successful ever attempted to cure sickle-cell