Monthly Archives: July 2015

Malaria-driven sickle cell trait selection – evidence for modern day human evolution?

1911_Sickle_Cells credit openstax college

Sickle cell disease poses a serious health threat in tropical Africa and has been declared a public health priority by the World Health Organisation. However, as the English idiom goes: ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ and carriers of the mutation that causes the disease are provided with resistance to malaria. Eric Elguero and colleagues present evidence of a strong association between malaria prevalence and sickle cell trait in Central Africa. Furthermore, could this selection be evidence of modern-day human evolution?

Biology Developing World Health Medicine

Home Leone: Experiences from a diagnostic laboratory in an Ebola Treatment Centre

port loko

I recently returned from a five-week deployment to Port Loko, Sierra Leone, where I was working as a diagnostic laboratory staff member in an Ebola treatment centre (ETC). When I was offered deployment in April, several friends commented ‘Isn’t Ebola over now? I’ve not heard anything on the news for a while…’ Although the situation… Read more »

Biology Developing World Health Medicine