How do you get Sickle Cell Anemia?
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/8/2/17823193/6393923.gif)
Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary disorder. In order to have the actual disorder, a person must have obtained the recessive trait from both parents as shown in the picture to the left. If only one parent has the trait then half of the children will be carriers of the sickle cell trait, but they will not have the disorder. Carriers are not at all affected by the symptoms of the trait, however, the person with the disease will be fully affected.
Who is most affected?
Sickle Cell Anemia is a disorder that mostly appears in African Americans or those of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. Oot of the approximately 2 million people in the United States who carry the sickle cell trait, 1 in every 12 are African American. The original mutation that began the disorder is believed to have taken place in four places, three in Africa and one in Saudi Arabia, about 70,000-150,000 years ago which leads to the reasoning of why people of African American and Mediterranean descent are majority affected.