Aplastic Anaemia

Aplastic anaemia is a condition that people are NOT born with and it is not commonly known to be inherited. It can develop very quickly and suddenly in an individual but on the other hand it can develop slowly in some people. It has been found that typically 500 to 1000 people develop anaemia every year and it is more commonly found in Asian countries. This condition is best if it is found in the early stages to enable treatment to prevent it getting worse. In many cases the early detection is what helps a lot of sufferers with dealing with this condition.
This condition is a disorder of the bone marrow in an individual. It is where the bone marrow does not create enough blood cells for the body. Within the humans body there are lots of tiny cells called stem cells which are found in the bone marrow. These cells turn into both red and white blood cells which are passed around the body. If an individual was to suffer with aplastic anaemia their body would fail to produce bother the red and white blood cells and platelets. The main reason for these is to fight infection and prevent the individual from bleeding and bruising. If these cells are missing in the body, it often tends to replace them with fat cells.
Aplastic anaemia can affect people in many different ways. Some people may be affected by the stem cells being partially producing blood cells and others may not be at all and this may fluctuate throughout the individual’s life. This is how the severity of the condition is checked upon. Some of the symptoms that an individual may suffer from if they have a lack of red blood cells can be tiredness, fatigue, headaches, pulsing of the ears, pale skin, or shortness of breath. If it was a shortage of white blood cells the symptoms may be a constant sore throat, chest infections, skin infections etc. if the individual was to have a lack of platelets in their body they may have symptoms that could be blood blisters, heavy periods, they could bruise easily, suffer from nose bleeds and gum bleeding and small spot rashes that are typically on their legs and are red.
As the symptoms of this disorder are very similar to other conditions, it can take a while before the individual is diagnosed with the condition. A doctor will need to confirm this condition by taking a sample of the individual’s bone marrow. This is extracted and tested in a laboratory and is used to rule out any other sort of disease.
Aplastic anaemia can be treated by two different types of therapy.
1. Supportive therapy is where it treats the blood cells and platelets that are not working properly. This can be done in the forms of red blood cell transfusions and this may cause the body to produce an excessive amount of antibodies.
2. Definitive therapy is done by making the immune system which doesn’t destroy the blood cells. Or this can be done by bone marrow transplant.