Sickle cell patients in need of African American blood donors

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every 365 African Americans will be diagnosed with sickle cell disease or have a sickle cell trait.

Sickle cell disease is an evolutionary trait that prevents malaria but also stops blow flow and oxygen to organs. The disease is treated through routine blood transfusions.

African Americans and Latinos have specific markers in their red blood cells and are free of specific antigens.

This makes a possible match for a patient with sickle cell disease because the blood that is transfused is potentially the same makeup of the sickle cell patient’s uninfected blood.

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