Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the inherited illness, sickle cell anemia, its diagnosis, treatment and containment of its health implications for patients young and old. It devotes special attention to the difficult subject of how to counsel children through the frightening aspects of the disease, such as chronic pain and promising new treatments for the disease overall. Despite the illness' chronic nature, it is a containable illness for most patients, and enables them, with proper care, to have full lives, even though there is as yet no cure.

             Textbook definition of the disability .

             According to the National Institute of Health, (2005) sickle cell anemia is an inherited blood disease. This means individuals are born with the illness. One cannot catch the disease from other people but parents can pass the illness on to their children through their genetic material. ("What is Sickle Cell Anemia," NIH, 2003).

             Sickle cell anemia lasts throughout the duration of an individual's lifetime and affects the red blood cells. Normal red blood cells are smooth and round like doughnuts. They move easily through blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts of the body. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells become hard. They are sticky, in other words, they do not proceed through the blood vessels freely, because they are shaped like sickles or crescents. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood vessels, they tend to get stuck and block the flow of blood. This can cause pain, damage, and a low blood count of red cells, a condition known as anemia. ("What is Sickle Cell Anemia," NIH, 2003).

             Key diagnostic procedure(s) for determining the disability .

             The sickle cell genes tell the body to make the variant hemoglobin that results in sickle-shaped red blood cells. Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to all parts of the body. Children who inherit sickle cell genes from both parents will have the variant hemoglobin and have sickle cell anemia.