Sickle cell anaemia is where red blood cells assume a rigid cresent shape rather than a round concave shape. This can cause pain, fatigue and many other symptoms

This refers to the inheritance of one mutant red blood cell gene, from mother or father, and one normal. People who inherit this are classed as carriers and are generally healthy plus have a resistance to Malaria. This cannot develop into the disorder however if two people have the sickle cell gene and produce children, their children may inherit two and gget the disorder.

If both parents have the trait there is a 50% chance the child will get the trait and a 25% chance they will get the disorder.

If only one parent has the trait and the other has a normal gene, there is no chance a child will get the disorder but a 50% chance they will inherit the trait.

Research suggests that transplating blood stem cells, from bone marrow or the umbilical cord blood, into children donayed from siblings has shown a huge success rate. However it is unlikely that children will not have good gentic match siblings so research has continued using umbilical cord blood from unrelated donors with some success.

Various drugs to reduce the complications are also under research.