Malaria continues to select for sickle cell trait in Central Africa

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Elguero, Eric | Délicat-Loembet, Lucrèce | Rougeron, Virginie | Arnathau, Céline | Roche, Benjamin | Becquart, Pierre | Gonzalez, Jean-Paul J | Nkoghé, Dieudonné | Sica, Lucas | Leroy, Eric, M. | Durand, Patrick | Ayala, Francisco J. | Ollomo, Benjamin | Renaud, François | Prugnolle, Franck

Edité par CCSD ; National Academy of Sciences -

International audience. Significance Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a major cause of death for young children in Africa, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health priority. It is increasingly spreading outside of Africa because of population migrations, and, thus, it will become in the near future a global health concern. It is therefore important to understand how this genetic disorder is maintained in human populations. Although the association between Plasmodium falciparum malaria and SCD is well known, the strength of this association is far from known. Using an extensive cohort of 3,959 persons, distributed over the entire Gabonese Republic, this study shows that P. falciparum malaria continues to exert strong selective pressure in favor of the sickle cell allele.

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