In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, demonstrate a surprising mechanism for this innate immunity.
Here, we use a comprehensive data assembly of HbS allele frequencies to generate the first evidence-based map of the worldwide distribution of the gene in a Bayesian geostatistical framework.
Although a link between sickle cell disease and resistance to severe malaria is well established, the biochemical relationship between the two is unknown.
Although malaria is widely considered a major cause of death in young children born with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in sub-Saharan Africa, this is poorly quantified. We attempted to investigate this question through 4 large case-control analyses involving 7164 children living on the coast of Kenya.
We conducted a 5-year prospective surveillance study for malaria parasitemia, clinical malaria and severe malarial anemia (SMA) in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania between 2004 and 2009.
Malaria carries high case fatality among children with sickle cell anaemia. In Uganda, chloroquine is used for prophylaxis in these children despite unacceptably high levels of resistance. Intermittent presumptive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has shown great potential for reducing prevalence of malaria and anaemia among pregnant women and infants.
Presumptive treatment with SP was more efficacious than weekly chloroquine in reducing prevalence of malaria in children with sickle cell anaemia. Continued use of chloroquine for malaria chemoprophylaxis in children with sickle cell anaemia in Uganda does not seem to be justified. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCTOO124267
