HAVING two copies of a mutant gene for haemoglobin almost eliminates your
risk of developing malaria, say Italian researchers. One in five people they
studied in the West African country of Burkina Faso has at least one copy, which
they predict will spread through the population.
David Modiano and his colleagues at the University of Rome examined 4348
people—835 with the disease and 3513 without. They found that those who
were free of the disease were much more likely to carry the HbC variant
of the gene for haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein that gives blood its
red colour. The…
