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How does the sickle cell trait protect someone from malaria ?

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By Catherine de Lange. The elusive mechanism by which people carrying the gene for sickle-cell disease are protected from malaria has finally been identified. This could point to a treatment for malaria. read more

Information and education on how the Sickle Cell trait may provide protection from malaria. read more

On the contrary, individuals who are carriers for the sickle cell disease (with one sickle gene and one normal hemoglobin gene, also known as sickle cell trait) have some protective advantage against malaria. As a result, the frequencies of sickle cell carriers are high in malaria-endemic areas. read more

The elusive mechanism by which people carrying the gene for sickle-cell disease are protected from malaria has finally been identified. This could point to a treatment for malaria. People develop sickle-cell disease, a condition in which the red blood cells are abnormally shaped, if they inherit two faulty copies of the gene for the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin. read more

People with either HbAS (heterozygous with hemoglobin A and hemoglobin S) or HbSS (homozygous with hemoglobin S) are considered to have sickle cell trait and can show symptoms of sickle cell disease. However, when an individual is homozygous recessive for hemoglobin S, severe symptoms start to occur. read more