Sickle cell is the most common inherited blood disease, which causes waves of pain, damage to vital organs, and some die in childhood or early adulthood. The disease is most commonly found in blacks and Hispanics of Caribbean descent. Around one out of every 400 blacks inherits the sickle cell disease. Sickle cell occurs when two sickle cell genes or a combination of one sickle cell gene plus any one of several other hemoglobin genes. This report will go in depth with many major issues of sickle cell such as complications, treatment, types of the disease, and a major sickle cell research supporter. .

             Sickle cell is an inherited illness of the red blood cells. This is important because red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body by using a protein called hemoglobin. A normal blood cell has the shape of a doughnut and they are very flexible which lets them move easily through small blood vessels. A person with sickle cell has red blood cells that contain sickle hemoglobin, which makes them have a curved shape like that of a sickle after oxygen is released. Sickle cells become stuck and form plugs in small blood vessels. By blocking these vessels tissues can be damaged, and since blood vessels travel throughout the body then anywhere in the body can be affected. Sickle cells have a tendency to become trapped and destroyed in the liver and in the spleen. This results in storage of red blood cells called anemia (a low number of red blood cells) and when severe it can cause the person to become pale, shortness of breath, and are easily tired.

             Three well-known types of this abnormality are sickle cell anemia (SS), sickle "C" disease, and sickle beta-zero thalassemia. "SS" means that two sickle cell genes inherited the sickle cell disease and it affects more than 50,000 Americans. "C" is understood that the child inherited a gene with abnormal type hemoglobin called "C" and has a 1:835 ratio to live birth with this disease.