In order for a child to be formed, a sperm from the father and an egg from the mother join together.

Each month the mother produces one egg and with each ejaculation the father discharges millions of sperm. Both the sperm and the egg carry substances called genes and that is the way we inherit or get certain characteristics from our parents. Genes are the messengers which are responsible for such things as the shape of our lips, the shape of our nose, the color of our eyes, the color of our skin, how tall we are and the type of hair we have. We are similar to our parents because of the messages carried in the sperm and egg. Genes in the sperm and egg also carry the message which determines the type of hemoglobin we have in our red blood cells and we get one-half of our hemoglobin type from our fathers and one-half from our mothers.

If the baby is formed from a sperm that carries the gene or message for normal hemoglobin and an egg that carries the gene or message for normal hemoglobin the baby's red cells will have all normal hemoglobin.

If the baby is formed from a sperm and an egg both of which carry the gene for sickle hemoglobin, the red cells will have all sickle hemoglobin and the baby will have Sickle Cell Anemia.

But if the baby is formed from sperm which carries the gene for normal hemoglobin and an egg which carries the gene for sickle hemoglobin or a sperm that carries the gene for sickle hemoglobin and egg which carries the gene for normal hemoglobin, then half of the hemoglobin will be normal and half will be sickle. This baby will have the Sickle Cell Trait.

When you have Sickle Cell Trait you have inherited a single dose of the sickling tendency or one sickle gene and when you have Sickle Cell Anemia you have inherited a double dose of the sickling tendency or two sickle genes. So Sickle Cell Anemia is not a disease that you can catch. You are born with it and that is the only way you can get it.