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Can a child have sickle cell disease if both parents are okay?
What you need to know:
- Sickle cell anaemia is inherited from parents who are carriers and these in most cases may be without any known symptom of the condition.
Although my wife and I are okay, when our firstborn who is two years old started falling sick we took him to hospital where after tests he was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Is this child mine?Kalani
Dear Kalani,
Sickle cell anaemia is a disease caused by changes (mutations) in the gene that tells the body to make the red blood cell haemoglobin, which helps red blood cells carry oxygen to various parts of the body. Because of the gene mutations, one will make defective haemoglobin, which might at low oxygen levels, make red blood cells sickle cell-shaped.
These will manoeuvre through small blood vessels, blocking blood supply to certain body parts leading to pain and anaemia, among others.
From the third week of pregnancy, haemoglobin with chains (ε) is formed in the yolk sac, up to around three months when foetal haemoglobin with chains (α2γ2) is formed in the liver to take over.
Foetal haemoglobin is produced from about six weeks of pregnancy up to two to four months after birth when it reduces to less than one percent because then, the adult forms of haemoglobin, including the most produced haemoglobin A1, take over.
Sickle cell anaemia is inherited from parents who are carriers and these in most cases may be without any known symptom of the condition.
Since you may be the father of the “offspring” with sickle cell anaemia, you need to secretly do a paternity DNA test so that you are sure whether you are the father or not. Doing the test openly might cause lots of friction in the family in case you are the father.
