Over the past few decades a lot of progress has been made in the treatment and care process of individuals with sickle cell disease. Some highlights of this progress are the prediction and prevention of strokes, better transfusion care and prevention of infection.
However, recently, it appears that progress towards better treatments of sickle cell disease has slowed down. Much progress needs to be done, as the current treatment therapies have been used for over 20 years, and are mainly limited to the drug Hydroxycarbamide, and bone marrow stem cell transplantations. Much is known about sickle cell disease, its symptoms and its development, but actual therapies are only considered for a small subset of individuals with the disease due to difficulties in properly going through with these treatments.
However, recently, it appears that progress towards better treatments of sickle cell disease has slowed down. Much progress needs to be done, as the current treatment therapies have been used for over 20 years, and are mainly limited to the drug Hydroxycarbamide, and bone marrow stem cell transplantations. Much is known about sickle cell disease, its symptoms and its development, but actual therapies are only considered for a small subset of individuals with the disease due to difficulties in properly going through with these treatments.
HydroxycarbamideHydroxycarbamide is a drug that is used to reduce the rate of painful attacks, which are quite common for people with sickle cell disease. The negatives are firstly that there are long-term negative effects associated with the drug that hasn’t been entirely figured out yet, and secondly it doesn’t fully treat sickle cell disease as it doesn’t reverse or fully treat the disorder, it merely slows it down. However, the positives of this drug are believed to outweigh the potential long-term risks associated with the drug.
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Bone Marrow TransplantationBone marrow stem cell transplantations have been proven to be especially effective for younger children, and currently is the only treatment that has shown signs of reversing sickle cell disease. The downsides are that it is extremely costly to treat, since obtaining the correct bone marrow is hard to obtain, and that it involves a lot of toxins when used for adults.
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Take Away
While there have been successful improvements made the past few decades in the treatment and prevention of sickle cell disease, the pace of advancement has slowed down dramatically. It is fundamental, that more research is done for this disease and more effective long-term treatments are found.
References
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sickle-cell-anemia/basics/treatment/con-20019348
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca/treatment
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/treatments.html
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sickle-cell-anaemia/Pages/Treatment.aspx
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca/treatment
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/treatments.html
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sickle-cell-anaemia/Pages/Treatment.aspx