Hello, and thank you for consulting the Ask a Question
service with your question about sickle cell anemia.
This service is staffed by librarians and we cannot give
medical advice. I will try to provide you with some sites
that can give you more information. However, the best source
of information for health questions is your doctor or
another health professional. Your local library may also be
able to help you find more information.
The US National Library of Medicine has a page
explaining about sickle cell disease:
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition=sicklecelldisease This page includes the question, "How do people inherit
sickle cell disease?"
"This condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive
pattern, which means both copies of the gene in each cell
have mutations. The parents of an individual with an
autosomal recessive condition each carry one copy of the
mutated gene, but they typically do not show signs and
symptoms of the condition."
This page from Genome.gov also explains how this disease
is inherited:
http://www.genome.gov/10001219 Because it is caused by a recessive gene, both parents
have to pass on the gene for sickle cell anemia, so it makes
sense that a child could have it without any sign of it in
their parents. I hope this answers your question.
This service exists to answer questions from and about
Alberta, Canada. When time permits we do sometimes answer
questions from elsewhere. To ensure fast service in the
future, please consult this similar service in your own
state:
http://www.michigan.gov/askalibrarian They will be able to help you with any future questions.
Thanks!
