Sickle Cell Awarness

Sickle Cell Awareness

There are many health issues that the media puts on the forefront that the vast majority of the population should be aware of. Such health concerns as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and many others receive the attention that it is rightfully so due. There are other health concerns that receive media attention consistently, although they may not be deemed life threatening as the aforementioned. Nevertheless, ailments such as erectile dysfunction are routinely seen in primetime commercials. Pharmaceutical companies display products for ED, mental health disabilities and lung dysfunctions to name a few, because of the billions of dollars that is generated. There are other ailments that are life threatening but do not receive virtually any media attention at all. One disease is Sickle Cell Anemia, and there are many people worldwide that suffer from this potentially life threatening ailment. Sickle Cell Anemia is an abnormity of the red blood cells and causes a great deal of pain for those that suffer from it. A normal person's blood cells are round in shape and are able to pass through the blood vessels without any problems. A person with Sickle Cell has round blood cells, however; the majority of the blood cells are made in the shape of a half moon or a sickle. The sickle shaped cells become clogged in the blood vessels, causing severe pain. There should be more of a concerted effort to educate others and promote awareness about Sickle Cell Anemia.

One reason Sickle Cell Anemia should receive more attention is because there has been a great deal of advancement in finding a cure. In past years, a person with Sickle Cell usually did not live much longer past their teen years. African Americans and people of Mediterranean decent suffer from this disease and this could be a reason why there was not very much progress or concern about this ailment. Historically in the United States, there were many laws that hindered people of color on many levels. African Americans suffered from this disease and people were not sure what it was that caused them this severe pain. Years later as people of color made their mark in the world, the treatment of Sickle Cell improved. People were living longer and more productive lives, however; there still was not enough information about advance treatments and other procedures needed for the public at large. As a result of misinformation about Sickle Cell, many people still died at an alarming rate and not many in the medical field became aware of new procedures to treat it. Even today, this reason still holds true and there are many who have met their demise because of the lack of information on how to treat Sickle Cell.

Another reason why there should be more done to educate people about Sickle Cell is that health care professionals, although trained in treating the disease; still tend to stereotype people with Sickle Cell Anemia. A person with Sickle Cell occasionally suffers from extreme pain that cannot always be treated at home. The frequencies in which these pain episodes occur are different from one person to the next. A person may need to go to the emergency room several times a month and powerful pain killing drugs are administered to the patient. Sometimes a person that is treated numerous times raises a red flag with the health care worker in that the person in question is only in the emergency room due to a drug addiction. Many people with Sickle Cell are not given the treatment that they need because of this misinterpatation. Perhaps there should be sensitivity training for healthcare workers regarding this issue. Some may argue that it is a fact that people with Sickle Cell take advantage of their condition and use the system to acquire pain medication. However not everyone who suffers from Sickle Cell does this and perhaps there should be a way to detect if a person is actually in pain.

Another reason why Sickle Cell awareness is not on the forefront among other life threatening ailments could be that it affects mainly people of African descent. Racism still exist in America and because of this, people are misinformed and misinterpret the origin of Sickle Cell. There have been documented facts regarding how people who suffer from this disease have been victims of humiliation and discrimination. Many years ago, it was believed that Sickle Cell was a contagious disease only African Americans could become afflicted with. Many were teased as a child by white children that they possessed a vile of Sickle Cell and if they did not leave their school or neighborhood they would expose them to it. As outrages as this may sound, many African American youth actually believed this myth, as well as other myths that had a racial connotation to Sickle Cell Anemia. Sickle Cell is hereditary and a man and a woman with the Sickle Cell trait have a twenty five percent chance of producing a child with either the disease or the trait. There are medications that are consistently advertised in the media for ailments that cause pain. Since Sickle Cell Anemia affects mainly black people, could this