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Bloodlines: What you don’t know about sickle cell disease can cause a family of hurt

Courtesy by: stlamerican.com

Informing others about sickle cell anemia is a commitment sealed in blood at Sickle Cell Disease Community Advocates (SCDCA) in St. Louis. It is run and operated by women on a mission to assist families with sickle cell disease and to support those who are working on a cure.

What is sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited blood disease that affects one in 500 African Americans in the U.S. and millions of people worldwide. The sickle cell gene causes the body to make abnormal hemoglobin, the iron-rich protein that gives blood its red color and carries oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body.

What causes sickle cell anemia?

If a person inherits one sickle cell gene from a parent, he or she will have a sickle cell trait. Persons with the trait usually live normally, but can pass the trait to their children. If someone inherits two sickle cell genes, they will have sickle cell anemia. Genetic counseling can help families and individuals understand the risk of having a child with the disease.

Who is at risk for sickle cell disease?

Although it is more common in darker-skinned ethnic groups, sickle cell disease can occur in people of all races.

What happens during a sickle cell crisis?

With sickle cell disease, there is not enough oxygen in red blood cells. Instead of being round, healthy red blood cells, they become rigid and deformed into the crescent sickle shape, which do not move easily throughout the body. The sickle cells can clump together and cause blockages in the blood vessels, depriving tissues of needed oxygen. This episode, known as a sickle cell crisis, can cause mild to excruciating pain, swelling and other difficulties for a period of minutes, hours or days, making it difficult to breathe, function or move about.

What are complications from sickle cell disease?

Leg ulcers, infections, acute chest syndrome, gallstones, high blood pressure in the lungs, an enlarged spleen, stroke, and organ failure are other complications that can occur with sickle cell. Many sickle cell patients require repeated hospitalizations, strong pain medication and blood transfusion therapy.

Sickle cell anemia has different names, including Hemoglobin SS disease, Hemoglobin S disease, Hemoglobin SC, HbS disease, sickle beta thalassemia, but they all are some form of sickle cell anemia.

“I have two children with sickle cell SS, which is considered to be the severe form of sickle cell anemia, but I have two different experiences between Hakeem [age11] and Haniyah [age 6],” said their mother, Tamneca Reid, who also has sickle cell disease.

“Hakeem suffers ? his cognitive skills are low, he’s deaf in one ear. He suffers emotionally. He aches pretty much every day, from mild to severe. And Haniyah, on the other hand ? she suffers none.”

At least that’s what she thought, until Haniyah received an MRI of the brain.

“Haniyah doesn’t suffer (with pain) from sickle cell disease as of now… and the testing came out that she did have a silent stroke… so you could have the same disease and suffer two different ways.”

Delores Rucker didn’t know she carries the sickle cell trait until her toddler son became ill a few years ago –right after the birth of her daughter.

They were both tested and confirmed with sickle cell anemia.

Pain treatment and pain management for sickle cell patients is crucial.

Dayvin is now 6 and Dyamond, her daughter, has experienced a lot of pain in her 4 years.

“My daughter was just in the hospital twice at Cardinal Glennon, and my son, he is receiving blood therapy,” Rucker said. The blood therapy has decreased the number of painful episodes for her son.

“As far as pain goes, for my daughter … I try Tylenol with codeine. At times, it doesn’t work, and then we’ll switch it to oxycodone. When that didn’t work, we had to send her into the hospital and they had her on morphine ? a constant-drip morphine. And after a while – after a few days, it tends to work.”

Rucker said when the intravenous morphine doesn’t work – her health care providers will give her a blood transfusion.

She avoids extreme weather but any day without a sickle cell crisis is considered a good day.

“My son was actually just in the hospital and when we were leaving out with him, she was fine … running through the hallway fine and she slept the whole way to the house and the moment she woke up, she was in pain, so I turned around and took her right back. It’s just hard.”

Every day is a challenge with sickle cell anemia.

Social worker Tanjila Bolden is in pain every time she walks because of what sickle cell anemia has done to her hips. Her doctor told her she needed a hip replacement, but the graduate school student is trying to avoid that surgery as long as possible. Bolden is the mother one child. Her 10-year-old son has the sickle cell trait rather than the full-blown disease, and thankfully, she was able to bare her son before sickle cell anemia took its toll on her body.

“Every time I had a menstrual cycle, I had severe cramps and the cramps would start in my lower abdomen and lead into my back and down into my legs and I would go into a full blown crisis every time I had a cycle,” Bolden said.

Fluids, pain medicine – and sometimes oxygen were used to treat these monthly crises, but Bolden said they did not provide adequate relief.

“I got to a point where they put me on Depo [Provera] shot–the birth control to stop the periods … it stopped my cycles, which stopped the amount of crises that I had. Well, the Depo caused osteoporosis in the lower part of my spine, so I had to stop taking that. They were looking at burning the lining of my uterus to stop the cycles. That didn’t work… so they did a partial hysterectomy.”

A sickle cell anemia crisis can strike any part of the body, even your sexual organs. For 10 to 40 percent of males with sickle cell, priapism can occur, a condition causing painful, elongated erections.

Living through these terrible ordeals of both her son and her sister are the reasons Caroline Douglas founded SCDCA.

“There is nothing like an amputated spirit – many of these families suffer with that,” Douglas said.

The SCDCA Camp Moon Light debuted in August for children with sickle cell anemia and their siblings to learn and understand what they are going through.

“Sickle cell disease is not just one person’s condition – it affects the entire family. What we want to do is not just educate about sickle cell disease, but about sickle cell trait,” Douglas said. As a community with sickle cell, it is important for us to network with one another. What we try to do is make sure they are aware of the nature of their condition and then we educate them about what their condition is and how to live a better quality of life.”

Reid’s son attended Camp Moon Light and Camp Crescent, which is for children with sickle cell disease.

“Both camps were really good for him and his spirit. On one hand, Camp Crescent –it supplied friends and peers that suffer with the same condition. One the other hand, Camp Moon Light brought him out of his element,” Reid described. “My son – he’s nervously shy … but at the Camp Moonlight, he showed personality, he was dancing and doing things he normally don’t do around other people and built his confidence up to the ceiling.”

Last week, SCDCA held its Moon Light Walk to help fund Camp Moonlight and other programs and activities. The organization is looking for assistance to expand the camp into from a two-day to a five to six-week enrichment session.

Blood Disease May Protect Kids Against Malaria

Courtesy by: oneindia.in

Washington, : In a new study, researchers have found that the blood disease alpha thalassemia may protect kids from malaria.

Alpha thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which children suffering from it unusually make small red blood cells that mostly cause a mild form of anaemia.

Now, researchers at the University of Oxford led by Karen Day, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medical Parasitology at NYU School of Medicine, have found that having small red blood cells is an advantage against malaria.

“We made the surprising finding that packaging your hemoglobin in smaller amounts in more cells is an advantage against malaria,” she said.

“Alpha thalassemia is giving the child a hematological advantage by making more red blood cells.”

As a part of the study, researchers analysed around 800 children living in Papua, New Guinea, where malaria is endemic.

68 percent of children in Papua have alpha thalassemia. Dr. Day and her colleagues from the University of Oxford, Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, and Swansea University, showed that kids with mild form of the disorder tolerated massive blood loss caused by severe malaria because they started out with 10 to 20 percent more red blood cells than unaffected children.

“It is really remarkable and so simple. Children with alpha thalassemia have adapted to the loss of red blood cells associated with malarial disease by making more of these cells with less hemoglobin,” says Dr. Day.

“So, these children do better because they end up with more hemoglobin overall when they have a malaria attack compared to normal children.

“We show that alpha thalassemia is giving the child a hematological advantage by making more red blood cells.

The study is published in the March issue of the journal PLoS Medicine. (ANI)

A family health story: A dad’s fight to keep his son alive

Courtesy by: examiner.com

Meet Pat Girondi, trader, father of three, musician, the founder and CEO of Errant Gene Therapeutics and is on a mission to raise awareness for Orphan’s diseases. His first son, Rocco was given ten years to live back in 1992. He was diagnosed with a rare, genetic blood disorder called, Thalassemia. Thalassemia causes the body to make few red blood cells and less hemoglobin, causing anemia, fatigue and mild cases of Thalassemia can often be overlooked as iron-deficiency anemia. Severe cases such as Pat’s oldest son, needs regular blood transfusions to stay alive. Regular blood transfusions is needed for his son, every 18-22 days.

When Rocco was first diagnosed, he began doing intense experimental medicine. In the US under the regulations he could only continue in the hospital where the researcher was. It was cost prohibitive and impossible, Pat decided to take his family back to Italy where his son could receive proper treatment. He is glad he made the decision. “Italian doctors understand the blood disorder” Girondi says, “it is so rare in Chicago, that maybe 20 people in the entire Chicagoland area have it.” He truly believes they saved his son’s life.

Thalassemia tends to run in those with a Meditarrean heritage, including Italians, Greeks, Middle Easterns, Asians and African decents. He said it is found mostly with those who live on the “ocean.” About 15 percent are carriers. It is an easy and simple blood test that can find the blood disorder.

In 2007, Pat founded the Orphans Dream Foundation, a not for profit organization that supports research in Orphan Diseases. Orphan’s diseases are classified as a disease that receives little or no research funding because they are deemed unprofitable by large pharamceutical companies.

Pat g, Orphan’s HopeIn addition to his work as a trader and biopharmaceutical executive, Girondi is also an accomplished musician. Two of his tracks were recently featured in the Italian film Foccacia Blues and his third album with The Orphan’s Dream Band released Orphan’s Hope this summer. The band exists to raise awareness and funding for the Orphan’s Dream Foundation. All proceeds from album and ticket sales to the band’s events go directly to the organization.

Girondi currently splits his time between Bari, Italy and Chicago.

I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Pat, here are some questions that I asked him.

1) How was your son first diagnosed with Thalassemia? Patients become weak and lethargic because of their hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier in the blood is low. Blood tests showed he was sick.

2) Was it a quick diagnosis or did it take some time and research? We knew within a week from the initial blood test.

3) Were there any significant symptoms that lead you to believe he had this rare blood disorder? Lethargy and fatigue

4) Does anyone else in your family have Thalassemia? It is a genetic disease. Both his mother and I are carriers of the trait. It is mathematical. Each of our children had a 25 percent chance of being born sick.

5) How did you find the time to start the Orphan’s Dream Foundation in 2007? I have always tried to give back for my great luck in life. I am surrounded by people from around the world that have rare diseases. At any given time, I may be working on a half dozen cases. Given my experience in this field, I have a lot of services to offer to people in similiar situations to my own. I only do what I believe is correct. I always try to find the time to do what is correct.

6) Tell me more about the Errant Gene Therapeutics and the new FDA approved experimental treatment? We will soon be in patients…It is a gene therapy and has been in mice and primates. The principal participant researchers are at Sloan Kettering and the research team is made up of dozens of researchers from Singapore to California.

7) Has your son made any dietary and/or supplemental changes to help improve his condition? For example, certain foods can cause anemia. I just wondered if there has been any links to the foods he eats that can exaborate his condition. My son must take medication to get the iron out of his system. The iron comes from transfusions.

What can you advise to families who have children with rare health issues? What can they do to get the care and attention they need? People need to confront any major problems with resolve and patience. Every disease is different with different conditions and needs. They must be confronted one by one

We had a delightful conversation about Orphan Diseases, Thalassemia and everything else in between. He gets emails, phone calls and texts at all hours of the days from families looking for a cure, answers or for some help with their given conditions. He said, he pledged to God after his son’s diagnosis he would help other’s find ways to get answers to their condition. As with many parents who have children born of any type of disease, I asked him if his first born son stopped him from having more children. He said absolutely not. In fact, his second son was already born and tested right away. His results came up negative. He and his wife went on to have a third son, who also tested negative. He said children are gifts from God and are rewarding and a pleasure to have. You can tell when he speaks of his children, he really enjoys them. In his voice, they have a strong bond in supporting each other with love and respect. He says at the end of the day, it is about being effective and to help as many people as one possible can. I think Pat is doing exactly that.

A story of giving: Donate time, marrow to save a life

Courtesy by: mcguire.af.mil

7/29/2009 – JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. — The C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program first contacted me while I was at the Basic Instructor Course down at Sheppard, AFB.

The center contacted me and said I was a potential match for an 18-month-old boy with Beta Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that reduces the production of hemoglobin (the part of red blood cells that carry oxygen). It really caught me by surprise and did not remember registering for the DoD Bone Marrow Program five years earlier.

Once I was initially identified, the donor center sent a kit to Sheppard and the lab there took a little blood from me to check for disease and to find out if I was a good match. A “good match,” is where the donor and the recipient match at the genetic level. Because of this requirement, only about 2 percent of registered donors make it far enough to actually have an opportunity to donate. I gave my samples and waited for about three weeks.

I was the best match but the little boy was too sick to receive my donation. I was disappointed because I felt strangely close to him and wanted to give him a chance. Three years later, I received another call. This time it was an adult male withChronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. I was again excited. I thought, “I have a chance to do something amazing and save a life.”

I felt like an old pro. They sent the sample kit to McGuire AFB, where I was stationed this time, and I gave my blood and patiently waited for the results. I received another letter stating that I was again the best match but the recipient was unable to receive my transplant. I was beginning to think that the letter I received was the center’s way of making me feel better.

As it turned out, I was the best match! This time I spoke with a senior coordinator and her tone was much different from the others I had spoken with. It was not that the others were not professional or purposeful; but this new coordinator had an excitement in her voice. She informed me that we had to move quickly before the recipient’s health declined too much more.

As it turned out, when I was first identified, he was in treatment to manage his illness and was in a weakened state. However, the treatment was successful enough to buy him enough time to receive a transplant.

The program does not cost the donor anything. The center pays for hotel, travel and $50 a day for food per person. They flew me to Washington D.C. and put my wife and me in a great hotel. I donated peripheral blood stem cells as opposed to a traditional marrow transplant. PBSC donation requires the donor to take Filgrastim, a medication used to stimulate the donor’s marrow growth. I took this for five days and donated on the fifth day.
The bonus to all of this was that I felt good enough to enjoy the sites of D.C. I saw the doctor each morning for 30 minutes then I had the days and nights to myself. On that fifth day, I went in early to take the medicine and to prep for the donation. It was surprisingly easy and they accommodate you very well. The process, called apheresis, consists of blood being drawn from one arm and spun in a machine. The machine separates the PBSC from the plasma and collects it. Everything else, whole blood etc., returns to you through your other arm. The entire process takes a few hours, and my wife and staff made it easy. I spent one more night in D.C. to recover and went home.

All told, I spent seven nights in D.C. all paid for by the donation center. I waited a couple of months then I asked my coordinator if she had a status of my recipient. I was ecstatic to find out he was released from the hospital and he was in full remission. That was six days before Christmas in 2008.

When I got home later that day, I told my wife the good news. She said, “Now he gets another Christmas with his family and you gave him that chance.” It really occurred to me at that moment of what I did. I gave a little time, was uncomfortable for a couple weeks and the result was he got at least one more Christmas.

wheatgrass powder- 100% food supplement- Renowned worldwide for its therapeutic value

Courtesy by: telugupeople.com

Benefits of Wheatgrass:

Proponents of wheatgrass claim regular ingestion of the plant can

• improve the digestive system
• prevent cancer, diabetes and heart disease
• cure constipation
• detoxify heavy metals from the bloodstream
• help make menopause more manageable
• promote general well-being.

Blood Cancer and Thalassemia and Urinal Problems:

It is especially good for those with blood cancer and thalassemia (blood transfusion). Wheatgrass builds up resistance to diseases, eliminates body toxins and because of its alkaline properties, it is good for urinal problems. Molecular structure of chlorophyll in wheatgrass and haemoglobin in human body is similar and because of this wheatgrass is called ‘Green Blood’.

Heart, Intestine, Lung and Kidney Functions:

Chlorophyll in wheatgrass purifies blood, boosts the functioning of heart, and improves blood vessel, intestine, lung and kidney functions.

Brain and Heart Problems:

Wheatgrass loaded with vitamins E, A and C acts as an anti-oxidant and retards ageing of cells in the body that cause brain and heart problems.

Cancer:

The ‘live enzymes’ present in the chlorophyll in wheatgrass are a deterrent to cancerous cells. Wheatgrass also contains laeterite or vitamin B12 which is used in the treatment of various types of cancers.

Arteriosclerosis:

The presence of magnesium in large quantities in wheatgrass is supposed to help in reducing arteriosclerosis.

An All-purpose Tonic:

Wheatgrass is an effective tonic, beneficial for arthritis, skin allergies, greying or hair loss, weakness, kidney stones, weak eyesight, pyorrhea, or dental infections and fatigue. It not only works on wounds and burns faster than antiseptic, but is also super effective in serious cases of heart disease, acute stomach ache, infection of the digestive system, gas, paralysis, asthma, constipation, diabetes, leucoderma, leukemia and other cancers.

Great energizer: Drinking an ounce of wheatgrass juice is the same as consuming about two pounds of fresh vegetables and fruits as both give the same amount of vitamins and minerals.

Wonder cleanser: Wheat grass is a powerful cleanser and is known to have a detergent effect on the body’s lymphatic system. What this means is that the chlorophyll present in the juice flushes away the toxins from the body by removing them from the cells and releasing it into the bloodstream.

Smell good: The chlorophyll in the wheat grass is known to have a neutralizing effect on body odors due to bad breath, menstruation, and perspiration.

Body builder: The chemical composition of chlorophyll resembles that of hemin, a molecule found in hemoglobin, which means that wheat grass juice helps build the red blood cells and stimulates healthy tissue cell growth.

Stay slim: It is said that the nutritional value of wheat grass juice is so high that it helps repress sugar cravings thereby helping you lose weight.

So now bid good bye to junk food and welcome wheatgrass in your daily diet!

contact Dr A H Fatmi +919838505304 visit (wheatgrass.net.in)

Networking for a cause: To save one’s life

Courtesy by: dnaindia.com

Mumbai: Many a times we cannot help anyone because we don’t know who is seeking help. In the same way, many needy persons don’t know who to contact at the time of an emergency.

To remove this barrier, nine years ago Khushroo Poacha, an officer with the Indian Railways in Nagpur, started a website for the blood seeker and the donors. The site is www.indianblooddonors.com. This site is a boon for many who need rare blood during times of emergency.

The site is designed in such way that once anyone who registers themselves for seeking blood, the message automatically goes to the nearest blood donors anywhere in India. All of this happens within a minutewithin a minute.

But Poacha felt that many people still couldn’t be part of this life saving network due to lack of education, poverty and not accessible to computer. Hence he came up with the new idea to include mobile SMS system to connect the donors and seekers.

Today more than 50,000 donors have registered through this medium of connectivity. Every day 10-15 people are being helped by blood donation. Poacha says, “Blood cannot be created in a laboratory or factory. So it is very important for everyone to come forward and donate blood. Also, there is no harm in a healthy person in donating blood.”

“We do not realise but there are number of children who suffer from Thalassemia/Sickle Cell and other blood disorders. They need frequent blood transfusion; as regularly as every two-three weeks. We can help these patients by adopting a child for blood donation,” added Poacha.

In the same way, he has come up with another idea for helping those who are deprived and cannot afford to buy medicines. Poacha has created another site, www.givemedicines.org.Through this website, people can give unused medicines to the needy. “It’s been only two months but the response is overwhelming. People say that through the site they understand the importance of donating medicines,” he says.

Through the website 73 NGOs that donate medicines to the needy poor person are linked. Any one who wants to donate medicine have to check the website for the nearest drop box available in the city.

Prime info
You can help by spreading message about the site by pasting free stickers which will be provided by Kushroo Poacha

NGOs that serve the poor and need medicines can submit their information on the website so that Poacha can contact them and list them in their database.

For donating medicines people can directly contact Kushroo Poacha at 09860510099 or visit his website www.indianblooddonors.com, www.givemedicines.org

Life: Dealing with Thalassemia

Courtesy by: khaleejtimes.com

Sabiha Hassan, who recently completed school, wants to become a psychologist. As she speaks from her hospital bed, a small sack of blood hangs on an IV pole and a tube is attached to her arm. A blood transfusion is in progress but she remains nonchalant — after all, this is something she has been doing ever since she was a two-month old baby.

Sabiha is a thalassemic major patient, one among many cared for at the Dubai Thalassemia Centre at Al Wasl Hospital. “I have blood transfusions every three weeks. The transfusions grew more frequent because I use more blood as I grow older. Of course, it is a little more difficult than leading a normal life, but I believe that we are all tested by God,” Sabiha says, leaning back on her pillow. She ensured the disorder never affected her studies. “I fix an appointment for the transfusion a day before or after the exams. I have had my friends coming over to the hospital and we studied together during exams.”

Sabiha’s assuredness makes doubts about thalassemia being a deadly disorder fade at this point… only to return during a chat with Dr Ahmed Mohammed Kadhim, Specialist Registrar, Thalassemia Centre. During the chat, it transpires that patients afflicted with thalassemia major have a short lifespan. “We do have patients approaching their 40s but with frequent blood transfusions there will be an iron overload in their tissues, which can damage the heart, the liver and the pancreas,” explains Dr Ahmed. And blood transfusion is a management, not a cure. “The only cure for Thalassemia is a bone marrow transplantation so that the patient’s diseased marrow can be replaced with a well functioning one.” The procedure is not currently performed in the UAE, Dr Ahmed adds. “After the procedure, the child will have a 95 per cent chance of leading a healthy life, free from thalassemia. Still, there is a 10 to 20 per cent chance of the procedure resulting in complications and a five to 10 per cent chance of death.”

Blood transfusions alone, in Dubai, cost about Dh 50,000 to 70,000 per year — this, not including the nurses’, doctors’, laboratory and other expenses. But at the Thalassemia Centre, Dubai, the expenses are covered by numerous charitable institutions and foundations.

To dispose the excess iron overload in the body of the patient, an injection must be administered to the patient through a special pump — five or seven days a week — which must remain injected for around eight to 10 hours every day. “But the problem is that patients do not comply with the need to use this because of the pain,” says Dr Ahmed. The long hours of use also makes the patient shirk the injection.

What sets thalassemia apart from most ailments is that awareness programmes do not target the patients — but rather the carriers of the disease, the thalassemic minors. While explaining the reason for this shift in focus, Dr Ahmed points out, “Carriers of the disease can live normally and will not show symptoms.” Hence, identifying these carriers through a special blood test is becoming an increasingly urgent need.

Couples planning to start a family should keep in mind that a diseased chromosome from one parent and a normal chromosome from the other have a 50 per cent chance of resulting in an offspring who is a carrier. And if both partners are thalassemic minors, there is a 25 per cent chance of their child being a thalassemic major — which is why a blood test should gain priority over any other plans before fixing a wedding date. 
 Even as the doctor speaks, 17-year-old Raheel Saghir is a minute away from having a transfusion. After two nurses read out Raheel’s and the donor’s blood specifications (which included a ‘K negative’ — a blood subgroup), Raheel gets ready for his transfusion.

Born and brought up in the UAE, Raheel was diagnosed with thalassemia when he was a baby. Both his parents are thalassemic minors. “My 16-year-old brother has thalassemia major, too, but my sister is fine, mashallah,” says Raheel.

Having a brother with the same disorder has helped Raheel deal with thalassemia more easily. “We come for blood transfusions together,” he smiles.

And my name is blood

Courtesy by: defimedia.info

I not only accompany you from the womb to the tomb, but I am intricately linked to your very conception.  If not for the role that I play during the sexual act, no man would have been able to impregnate a woman through the natural process.

It is under the pressure of my flow that the pineal organ will give the erection, and consequently the eja­culation, through which semen is transferred to the woman’s vaginal walls, and mate with ova. Even in the woman I play a very vital role. I flow to the vaginal walls and the cervix, and the clitoris, the primordial organ in the initiation of the woman’s ejaculation, which in turn facilitates penetration.

If not for my presence in the uterus of a woman, no foetus would have been able to grow into a baby. Interestingly, each time a baby is born, I am one of the first things which accompany it for I come out from the uterus, along with the new-born.

Social existence
Apart from my biological purports, I also have a grand social existence. There are many people who say that “blood is thicker than water.” Here it is implied that in good and bad times, family members always stand by each other. However, I get sceptical over this issue when I see the rising rate of matricide, patricide, fratricide, sororicide, filicide, uxoricide, mariticide and other related kin homicide.

For aeons, especially through legends, myths, and literature, I have always been a subject of contempt. Legends have it that blood-sucking creatures like vampires would kill human beings to drink their blood. As time evolved, I was turned into an associate of witchdoctors.

They would cure the afflicted by evil spirits by offering blood to their deity. Unfortunately, this practice is still in vogue in the 21st Century. There are millions around the globe to resort to blood offering so as to come out of their problems. Due to this barbarous method of bringing solutions to problems, many innocent people, especially children, have been killed and their blood offered to some deity.

Interestingly, I have built an amazing network of audience and readers who devour blood-related narratives. Many Shakespearean plays evolve around me. Throughout the ages people have been relishing dramas like The Merchant of Venice where a pound of flesh is to be cut without shedding a single drop of blood. There were also tragic love stories like Romeo and Ju­liet where the Mon­ta­gu and the Capulet families are ever ready to shed the blood of the other. I have also created a big impact on spectators, and readers, through the play entitled Macbeth where blood remains a very powerful metaphor throughout its duration.

As time went by, I became a very interesting and acclaimed topic in the world of books. Very few of you would be able to say that you never read a book by the specialist in the thriller genre, Christopher Pike whose bloody stories most probably gave you goosebumps.

Still, as time elapsed, I paved my way into the cinematographic media. Whether in Hollyrood, Bollywood or Tollyrood, I have most certainly become a craze amidst the masses.

In food items
Did you know that people consume me? Yes, they do. Some cultures consume me as food, often in combination with meat. This may be in the form of blood soup, as a thickener for sauces, a cured salted form for times of food scarcity. There are blood sausages or blood puddings, blood stews, blood pancakes, and others. I can also be fried and eaten fresh, right away after the animal is slaughtered. However, some cultures consider blood to be a taboo form of food. In Jewish  and Muslim cultures, for instance, consuming me is forbidden by religious law.

As you can see, I am omnipresent in your lives in more than one way. However, there remains an aspect of me which interests very few people. I am here referring to myself as a life-saver. I hold the capacity of saving your lives upon need. But that is only if you volunteer to share me with others. I find that there are quite a few of you who have actually shared me with others.

Remember, I may be needed anytime, anywhere and by anyone. Let’s take the example of diseases which require me to play a primary part. Bone marrow, Thalassemia and Haemophilus are some examples of the diseases which are linked to me. Then there are also and always patients with severe trauma and loss of blood, or  anemic patients who need blood transfusion.

Voluntary donors’ number is growing
Let us see what Subhanand Seegoolam, president of the Blood Donors’ Association (BDA), has to say about blood donation in Mauritius.

“Only 5% of the Mauritian population are regular donors,” says  Seegoolam. That is why this organisation is always making earnest appeals to volunteers to come forth to donate blood. “Yearly there are some 800 patients who go for dialysis and some 400-450 who need blood transfusion during surgical operations,” he says.
Seegoolam says many persons are indifferent towards  blood donation. According to him, many people remain insensitive to the problem unless and until their own kith and kin require blood. That is why the appeal for donating blood should be constant.

This year, on the occasion of the Blood Donors’ Day, emphasis has been laid on the sensitisation of the youths, aged between 18-25 years. “Last year we collected 46 000 pints. This year, our target is 50 000,” says Seegoolam.
He adds that during winter season, there are less blood donors. “However, we cannot forget road accident victims, and women with difficult delivery. These are two frequent cases where blood transfusion is badly needed,” he says.
Donating one’s blood is the greatest gesture that one can do to mankind. “When we give our blood, we do not know to whom it will be going, and this feeling of joy at having helped someone in time of need cannot be compared to any other feeling,” he says.

One interesting and encouraging sign is that  compared to 10 years back when there were only 30% of blood donors, the rate of volunteers has now increased by 50%.

Crucial Differences Between Non-Embryonic and Embryonic Stem Cells

Courtesy by: thebulletin.us

We hear a lot about “stem cells,” which are front-and-center as a major policy debate in America, one that involves science, medicine, ethics, politics, and much more.

What are the issues? What’s at stake? What are embryonic and non-embryonic stem cells? What are the crucial differences and distinctions we need to make as a society and citizenry?

Stem-cell technologies are some of the newest and fastest developing biotechnologies. Typically, along with genetic engineering and cloning, these technologies constitute the kind of 21st century advances that make this “the century of Biology.”

A stem cell is a type of cell that is nonspecific in its function; in contrast, for instance, to a heart or brain cell, which is functionally specific. There are two major sources of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and non-embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are obtained from 5- to 12-day old embryos. Although removal of a stem cell from an embryo kills the embryo, the stem cells are valued for their potential to produce any type of cell. That is, they have high plasticity. Conversely, non-embryonic stem cells are found in large quantities in placenta, umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, and in essentially all adult organs or tissues, including bone marrow, fat, kidney, liver, pancreases, intestines, breast, lung, etc. Any of these non-embryonic stem cells have ample plasticity and can give rise to nearly any type of cells, including heart, liver, lung, muscle, etc.

Thus, the heart of the stem-cell controversy centers on the aforementioned fact that the extraction of stem cells from 5- to 12-day embryos kills the embryo. But that’s not the only issue: In addition, stem cells derived from an embryonic human may, in turn, reject the person who receives them. This situation is called graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). The problem can be avoided by producing an embryonic clone of the person needing the stem cells. However, the procedure produces an embryo that is indistinguishable from an embryo from a fertilized egg. This embryonic clone would be destroyed during the stem-cell harvesting required by the therapy. This type of cloning is called “therapeutic cloning,” since the production of a human baby is not the goal. (Reproductive cloning, producing a cloned human baby, has been universally outlawed.)

Another problem is that the embryonic stem cells can unpredictably cause cancer in the treated patient.

On the other hand, newly developed treatments associated with non-embryonic (adult) stem cells are way ahead of any hoped-for treatments associated with embryonic stem cells. Recent non-embryonic stem-cell therapies include treatments for non-healing bone breaks, healing damaged hearts, regenerating damaged muscles, correcting scoliosis, regenerating knee cartilage, treating thalassemia, osteoarthritis, diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, spinal chord and nerve damage. Treatments to heal conditions associated with almost any organ or tissue are in view. These advances cast serious doubt on the need to develop embryonic stem-cell therapies, especially since embryonic technologies are morally objectionable, given that they require the death of the human embryo.

The use of one’s own adult stem cells (autologous stem-cell transplant) is a way to avoid the problems of rejection and of killing human embryos. Also, certain types of adult stem cells (mesenchymal cells) can be harvested from anyone and changed in the lab (transdifferentiated) into a desired cell. In both of these stem-cell applications there are no adverse effects to the donor of the adult stem cells. The non-embryonic stem cells are safely harvested, purified from other cells and/or expanded in culture, and introduced into the patient without rejection. In another process, virtually any adult cell can be harvested from one’s own body and treated to become cells capable of producing the needed cell type (induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS). These cells can also be cultured in the lab, and reintroduced into the patient. All of these sources of adult stem cells avoid the problem of having to use patented embryonic stem-cell lines that would be less available to the public.

And yet, the reputed plasticity of the embryonic stem cells continues to make the prospects of doing research on human embryos attractive to researchers who are uninhibited by the prospect of killing human embryos.

It is worth pointing out that, in terms of medical applications and treatments, two major facts are usually left out of these discussions: First, non-embryonic stem-cell treatments have been used to treat tens of thousands of patients, and with dramatic benefits. However, embryonic stem cells have not had one clinical trial with humans. Also, it has been clearly demonstrated that non-embryonic stem cells do not produce cancerous tumors in humans. Whether iPS cells share this non-tumorigenic quality is not yet clear. However, iPS cells have all of the medical application value hoped for in embryonic stem cells.

It must be noted that in a field as rapidly moving as stem-cell research, this situation will likely not be current for long. However, the current progress of stem-cell research as of spring 2009 speaks volumes regarding the effectiveness of non-embryonic vs. embryonic stem-cell research. The promises of embryonic stem-cell researchers are wildly overstated. The claims that embryonic stem-cell therapies will be available in five to 10 years rings hollow.

Aside from these scientific considerations, there are moral-religious matters of obvious concerns to Christians:

Christians committed to the sanctity of human life should look with favor on technologies that preserve and/or improve human life. Consequently, non-embryonic stem-cell advances should be embraced when they: 1) respect the consent and preserve the dignity of the stem-cell donors, 2) enhance the health of the stem-cell recipient, and 3) protect human life at every stage of development. Embryonic stem-cell harvesting remains problematic because the procedure destroys the smallest and most helpless members of the human family: embryos.

In truth, embryonic stem-cell use is being trumped by successful and surprising advances in adult and other non-embryonic stem-cell research. These advances protect the dignity of the donor and recipient while recognizing the value of all humans, regardless of their stage of life, from conception through old age. Hence, all frozen human embryos should be given a chance to be born, not given over to researchers to be destroyed for the sake of a research project.