Sickle cell anemia.

Sickle Cell Anemia Sickle cell anemia is commonly known as a "black disease." Though it is most frequently found in Africans and African Americans, it is also found in people from the Mediterranean region, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and India. Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary blood disorder that causes the bone marrow to produce red blood cells with defective hemoglobin (hemoglobin S). Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying substance in red blood cells. Normally, red …

…Lastly, a new concept called gene therapy has the purpose to replace a defective gene with a normal gene, so that the genetic disease can ultimately be reversed. When the hemoglobin is corrected, the red-cell descendants can make the right kind of hemoglobin and will prevent blood from sickling. This treatment has not yet been tried on a patient with the disease, but is considered to be the future's best treatment of sickle cell anemia.