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Originally Posted by GatorB
It's possible for a 14 year old to not know he has sickle cell. My girlfriend's daughther has a boyfriend who was just diagnosed and he's 19. And he was only diagnosed because he is in the marines and they were doing a medical check up on him. Of course he's not black which is where most sickle cell cases are from, but you don't have to be black to get it.
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Many people still don't know that:
"The disease can also occur among non-African Americans. "People whose ancestors came from parts of the world where malaria was prevalent are potentially carriers of the sickle gene," said Duane R. Bonds, M.D., of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "In addition to people of African descent, people whose ancestors came from the Mediterranean basin-Greece, Italy, Sardinia-may also carry the gene. The sickle gene is also found in parts of India and the Arabian peninsula." -
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/496_sick.html