DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And on the topic of health, it's a health question about a disease that affects a number of Americans, the topic today of "</s>ASK CNN." AESHA BALDWIN: My name is Aesha Baldwin and I'm from Valdosta, Georgia and my question is, how close are we to finding a cure for sickle cell anemia?</s>RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sickle cell anemia is a genetic or an inherited disorder and it occurs because the red blood cells are abnormally shaped. And this can lead to a number of complications like real serious infections, as well as strokes. Researchers say they already can cure sickle cell anemia, and they can do this with bone marrow transplantation. So what they do is they find somebody who is very closely matched to the person who has sickle cell anemia. But researchers are very hopeful that they can expand the number of people that can be cured of sickle cell anemia by using cord blood transplants, and what that means is that they take the blood cells from umbilical cords after a child is born. So they can take the cord blood and the cells from the cord blood can actually become a healthy blood making factory in a person who has sickle cell anemia. So after somebody does get one of these transplants, doctors need to wait about six months to a year to see how the patient does, and if they don't have any kind of rejection during that time or any major infections, after about a year, then they consider that the patients are cured.
Ask CNN: How Close Are We to a Cure for Sickle Cell Anemia?