SICKLE CELL ANAEMIA AND VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY

Sickle cell disease is a serious haematological disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Therefore, it has been a disease of concern of many healthcare researchers; and despite the various advances in discovering the pathogenesis of the disease, many basic scientific processes are still not understood. Vitamin D association with sickle cell disease was one of the topics of recent interest. Vitamin D deficiency is known to be very common among patients with sickle cell anemia. Although the exact relationship between them remains elusive, some researchers postulated that the immunomodulatory role of vitamin D plays a role in reduction of the associated complications and the severity of sickle cell anemia symptoms. Over the last few decades, the association between vitamin D and sickle cell disease became clearer, and the understanding of this association led to a notable improvement in management of sickle cell disease and reducing its associated morbidity, complications, and mortality. This article will discuss the association between vitamin D deficiency and sickle cell anaemia and review how treating this deficiency state helped to improve the outcome of sickle cell disease.