Its victims need morphine, Percocet, Percodan - anything to relieve the pain in the blood vessels as they squeeze through the joints.
The silent attacker is sickle-cell disease, and last night at Logan Hall, Penn's Zeta Phi Beta sorority sponsored an event featuring two sickle-cell experts who discussed what sickle-cell disease is and how community members can help sickle-cell patients.
Zemoria Brandon of the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley chapter of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, urged listeners, especially African Americans, to receive testing.
The disease, Brandon said, affects 80,000 Americans and 1 in 500 African Americans.
In addition, 1 in 12 African Americans carry the sickle-cell trait, meaning that if two carriers have children together, there is a 25 percent chance that a child will have sickle cell disease.
The disease affects people of other races as well, including Mediterranean whites, Latinos, Asians and some people of Caribbean descent.
Red blood cells infected with sickle-cell disease are abnormally hard and crescent-shaped, which leads to painful clumping, especially around the joints. Normal red blood cells, in contrast, are malleable and round.
Felicia Parker, a diversity account manager at the American Red Cross, recommended that attendees donate blood.
Because red blood cells with sickle-cell disease can only survive for 10 to 20 days, doctors often find it effective to give patients healthy blood transfusions, Parker said.
Parker added, however, that the Red Cross has difficulty getting enough people to donate.
Currently, the Philadelphia Red Cross is on critical level for blood donations and imports one-third of its blood supply from the Midwest.
Parker said many people are afraid to donate blood due to a lack of awareness about the process - a situation that particularly affects the African-American population .
Though African Americans make up 12 percent of the United States' population, less than 1 percent donate blood, Parker said.
But it is important for African Americans to donate, she explained, since doctors recommend that sickle-cell patients receive transfusions from people of the same race.
College freshman Juna Dawson-Murray said she would probably donate after attending the event.
"Needles make me nervous, but it's for a good cause," she said.
