TULSA, Okla. — Several new treatments could help Oklahomans suffering from sickle cell disease. It’s a rare blood disorder that impacts nearly 100,000 people across the country.
“When you think about the impact, it’s lifelong,” said Velvet Brown-Watts. “It’s costly. It’s challenging and in essence, it really flips the family upside down.”
Velvet Brown-Watts is the founder of Supporters of Families with Sickle Cell Disease, Inc. The organization focuses on providing education and outreach.
Brown-Watts said it’s important to her because her son, Jeremiah Watts Jr., suffers from sickle cell disease.
“We’ve kind of been on that journey now for 19 years,” said Brown-Watts.
Watts Jr. was diagnosed shortly after he was born in 2004. The newborn screening program caught the disease.
“It’s a journey between hospitalizations, absences at school,” said Brown-Watts.
She said the disease attacks red blood cells, which carry oxygen through the body, causing severe pain and organ damage.
Her son has been on dialysis for years and needs a new kidney because of the disease.
“We think that sickle cell disease is all about pain, and although pain is the most common symptom, organ damage, and organ failure is right up there with it,” said Brown-Watts.
She said new treatments could help her son and the hundreds of Oklahoma families they serve. Currently, she said there are an estimated 40,000 people in Oklahoma who carry the sickle cell trait. Brown-Watts said there are more than 1,500 people who have sickle cell disease. In Tulsa alone, they serve more than 550 families.
The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundationdiscovered a potential new treatment that could eventually help mitigate pain.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved two milestone treatmentsthat are the first cell-based gene therapies for treating sickle cell disease.
“We’re really excited about all the new treatments that’re coming down the pipeline and all the new therapies that are coming out with potential life-changing measures,” said Brown-Watts.
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