TREATMENTMETHODS

**Contents:**

 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) Mutation
 * 3) Signs and Symptoms
 * 4) Heredity
 * 5) **__Treatment Methods__**
 * 6) Screening
 * 7) Interesting Facts
 * 8) Links
 * 9) __Bibliography__

__**Treatment Methods**__
With good prevention skills anyone with sickle cell anemia can do most of the stuff other people do. To stay as healthy as possible, people with sickle cell anemia should take these steps:
 * What** **can people with sickle cell anemia do to stay healthy?**
 * Eat a balanced, healthy diet including vitamins, folic acid supplements, as prescribed.
 * Drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration and avoid extreme cold or heat.
 * Exercise regularly, but in moderation. Exercise is important for staying healthy, but overdoing it can trigger a crisis in some people, particularly if they become dehydrated, overheated, or exhausted as well as getting plenty of rest.
 * Try to avoid alcohol, drugs and smoking which can aggravate sickle cell disease and its symptoms. Some people with sickle cell disease are prone to lung problems, so smoking is particularly risky.
 * Avoid places low in oxygen. (For example, it's not a good idea to go hiking at high altitudes or spend lots of time swimming under water.)
 * Prevent serious infections by contacting your doctor as soon as illness symptoms start. Learn as much as you can about the disease and see your doctor regularly to help prevent complications.

Yes. Doctors can perform a blood test called the hemoglobin electrophoresis to determine whether you are a carrier for sickle cell or have sickle cell.
 * Can one be tested for sickle cell?**


 * Medication/Treatments to ease the effects of Sickle Cell Anemia:**
 * Antibiotics
 * Pain-relieving Medicine
 * Hydroxurea (droxia, hydrea)
 * Vitamins
 * Supplemental Oxygen


 * Possible Treatments:**
 * Blood Transfusions: Blood transfusion is where blood is taken from a normal person with normal hemoglobin and red blood cells would be removed from the blood and transfered to the person with Sickle Cell Anemia. This way the increase of normal blood cells in the system would help relieve the anemia a bit.
 * The only cure known presently is Bone Marrow transplantation.
 * There are many criteria that a patient and donor has to meet for the procedure to succeed
 * Patients must be under age sixteen.
 * Patients must have severe symptoms but no long term organ or neurological damage.
 * Patients must have genetically matched siblings who will donate their marrow.
 * Only about 7% of patients meet the above criteria. However, complications may arise during the procedure. About 10% of those treated die from the treatment. Those who live but are not cured face long term problems caused bu the drugs in transplantation and the sickle cell disease itself. Even those who are cured may face long term consequences such as cancer and infertility
 * Another procedure is called partial chimerism, in which a mixture of the patient's and a donor's bone marrow is used. The procedure has far fewer side effects than the full procedure of the transplant because not all the bone marrow is destroyed. Although some sickle blood cells remain, small studies indicate that the patients are still free of the typical infections and pain of the disease.


 * Experimental Treatments:**
 * Gene Therapy: Sickle cell anemia is caused by a defective gene therefore researchers are looking at how to correct this gene by inserting a healthy bone marrow gene from another person. This will result in the production of normal hemoglobin. Bone marrow transplants procedure is still very risky and suitable donors are hard to find. Therefore this treatment is still in development stage and might be available later in times.
 * Butyric Acid: This food may help increase the amount of fetal hemoglobin in the blood.
 * Clotrimazole: Helps prevent water loss from red blood cell, which might be able to reduce the number of sickle cells that form.
 * Nitric Oxide: Sickle cell anemia carriers have low level sof nitric oxide, therefore with more nitric oxide it may prevent sickle cells from forming

Screening-->