How Sickle Cell Disrupts the Body

Sickle cell targets the proteins within your red blood cells called haemoglobin. Sickle cell causes them to become effective and make rod-like and clumped formations rather than moving around freely and detached as usual. 

The distortion is also accompanied by a texture change in the cell. The cell becomes sticky, and blood vessels are susceptible to blockage due to the build-up of these sickle cells. 

anaemia occurs when there aren’t enough red blood cells in the body, or there is an insufficient amount of haemoglobin found inside the body’s red blood cells.

Symptoms:

• Episodes of acute and often chronic pain (vaso-occlusive crisis)
• anaemia
• Acute chest syndrome
• Stroke
• Jaundice
• Splenic sequestration (pooling)
• Asthenia (general body weakness)

Possible complications: 

• Organ damage
• Multiple organ failure
• Failure in the urinary system 
• Eye damage
• Avascular Necrosis (permanent damage or death of tissues in the body due to lack of blood flow)