Sickle Cell Research
Right now there is no absolute treatment for sickle cell disease. There are some treatments, okay, but they are either temporary or needs to be administered for life. It’s sad when patients are forced to turn to narcotics to ease the pain brought on by crisis periods – all the more reason why the government should spend more time and money on sickle cell research.
Sickle cell research is being conducted by research groups in hopes of developing a cure or absolute prevention of the disorder. An example is the Sickle Cell Disease Research Center in Dallas, Texas.
Sickle cell disease in a person begins at a very young age when a mutation occurs somewhere in the hemogoblin gene. Sickle cell researchers are looking how to stop this from occurring in future infants. If you could somehow get to the root cause of it, then eventually the disease would die out.
Another important research is the development of an absolute cure. Existing treatments are temporary, such as dietary cyanate, penicillin and folic acid, hydroxyurea and narcotics. Some are dependent on age, such as bone narrow transplant, which is only proven to be effective in children. Sick cell researchers are looking to develop an absolute cure for all ages.
Here’s hoping sickle cell research comes up with something good very soon.