Do you know what Sickle Cell Disease is?

Carrying out practical and theoretical activities, as well as curricular activities on the study of sickle cell disease is the main objective of the new Academic League launched by students of the Bahiana, last Saturday, May 07th. To mark the launch, a meeting was held at the Cabula Academic Unit, with the participation of students and researchers from various teaching and research institutions in Salvador.

The program addressed the themes of Epidemiological Aspects of Sickle Cell Disease in Bahia and Brazil: the lessons of the heel prick test, presented by professor Ney Boa Sorte; The Research on Sickle Cell Disease in Bahia, conducted by professors Teresita Bendicho and Cynara Barbosa; and Association of People with Sickle Cell Disease in Bahia and Brazil, presented by Altair Lira, president of ABADFal.


LADF
Guided by the professors of the Biomedicine course, Maria Teresita Bendicho and the UNEB, Cynara Barbosa, the League's president is Flávia Lacerda, a student of the 3rd semester of the Biomedicine course, who has been researching the subject since the 1st semester, when she developed a paper on the pathological aspects of sickle cell disease. In the second semester, instigated by professor Teresita Bendicho, “she had loved our work and, in the second semester, she called me and said: Why don't we set up an academic league? I said: Why not, if Bahia is the state with the highest number of people affected by the disease nationwide? Then, I liked the idea, I immediately fell in love with the topic, I researched more and ended up spending my 2rd semester vacation preparing the league project”, says Flávia.

Another important point highlighted by the president is the composition of the team, “our league has a difference from other leagues because we cover all courses and all institutions. For example, here today we have people from the FTC, UFBA, UNEB, Unime, Unirbe, we have students from technical courses, there are BI people from UFBA, so there are many people who signed up and were interested in the topic”.

As an example of this, Jucidalva Gomes, a student of Social Sciences at UFBA, is present among the members of the league. She says that she has sickle cell anemia as an object of study for being a carrier of the disease. “I started in the league because I have the disease and that's why I already have a technical base. But I didn't want to work in the health area because sickle cell disease is in society. I wanted to study how a person with sickle cell disease lives. What is its social impact, both on civil society and on the political class. So I asked to join the league and work with them not only on the biological side, but on the sociological aspect of the disease.”

According to Marivaldo Santos, a senior in Biomedicine, a member of the LADF and a researcher on sickle cell disease, sickle cell anemia is already considered a much-discussed disease today, especially in Bahia. Data show that 16,6% of the population of Bahia, which is considered a Negroid population, has sickle cell disease or sickle cell trait. “It is very studied today, in our environment. So why study sickle cell anemia? To develop the cure? No, there is no cure. But we struggle to bring knowledge to these people. Because there are patients who do not know the ethnicity of the disease, what this disease is, nor the palliative treatment, places where to look”.

Flávia points out the interest shown by the audience at the meeting as a very important aspect, as it helps to spread knowledge about the topic. “I think this is very valid. Because here in Bahia the topic is still very little publicized in relation to our reality of what sickle cell disease is today.

The president also highlights that the main objective of the league is the dissemination of knowledge, through outreach activities. “According to our motto, sickle cell disease is research, teaching and extension. So we intend, later, with more baggage, to go out into the field, publicize what the disease is in schools, in the community, teach people how to treat themselves”.


Learn more
Sickle cell anemia is a Hemoglobinopathy derived from a minimal change in the structure of hemoglobin capable of causing a drastic anatomical and functional change in red blood cells. With this, the mutant hemoglobin - deoxyhemoglobin-s (ie, the hemoglobin that has undergone a loss of oxygen) gains the shape of a sickle which triggers a series of problems such as vascular occlusions, tissue damage as this cluster of mutants passes through the blood vessels.

People with sickle cell anemia receive hemoglobin S from both their father and mother. They are called SS. A person with sickle cell trait, on the other hand, is the one who receives the hemoglobin A gene from one parent and the hemoglobin S from the other. She will not develop the disease, however, if she joins another person with sickle cell trait, there is a great chance of this couple having children with sickle cell anemia.


How to identify
Today, children who are born already undergo, in the first days of life, the heel prick test. It is possible to identify a series of diseases, including sickle cell anemia. In the case of children and adults, please note:

• Chronic anemia – caused by the rapid destruction of red blood cells.
• Jaundice – yellowish color on the skin and visibly in the “whites of the eyes”.
• Painful Crisis – mainly in bones, muscles and joints.


how to care
For more severe crises, medical follow-up is advisable. On the other hand, milder attacks can be treated at home, with the ingestion of plenty of fluids.
Patients with sickle cell anemia must be enrolled in the Comprehensive Care Program where they will be assisted and monitored by a specialized team, including neonatal diagnosis, clinical consultation, vaccination, treatment and multidisciplinary follow-up.

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