Hyderabad: Over 20 million children in India are born with sickle cell anaemia every year. With the present rate at which it is spreading, 1.5 crore children will be infected by the disease in the next two decades. In Telangana state, it has been reported in districts with high incidences of malaria.
Sickle cells are caused due to a genetic mutation; instead of round red blood cells they are crescent-shaped. It is hereditary and if both parents have sickle cells, the child might also have it. Because of this, genetic testing is important during pregnancy, say experts. Sickle cells in the red blood cells decrease elasticity. There is also low-oxygen in the cells due to which haemoglobin molecules stick to each other. It causes stunted growth in childhood, bacterial infections, jaundice and heart attacks.
Dr A.V. Rao, general physician at Mediciti Hospital, said, “Children suffer from acute bone pains, recurrent gall stones, jaundice and malaria. The treatment presently given is antibiotics, analgesics and also treatment for malaria. Despite the medicines, mortality and morbidity is very high.” The actual anaemia of the illness is caused due to the destruction of red cells inside the spleen. Dr Imran Khan, consultant physician at Care Hospital, said, “Bone marrow plays a very important role as it constantly tries to compensate by creating new red cells. But it does not match the rate of destruction. A healthy red blood cell lives for 90 to 120 days in a normal person, but in a case of sickle cell, it survives only for 10 to 20 days.”
Dr Kanakabhushanam, head of the department of KIMS Foundation and Research Centre, said, “Bone marrow nurtures stem cells and in the transplant, sickle cells of the patient are destroyed and the cells are transplanted. Clinical studies using carefully selected patients have reported very successful results.”
