A person with sickle cell anaemia is

Options

A. more prone to malaria.
B. more prone to typhoid.
C. less prone to malaria.
D. less prone to typhoid.

Answer

C

Explanation

A person with sickle cell anaemia is less prone to malaria because in sickle cell anaemia red blood cells becomes abnormally shaped, if they inherit two faulty copies of the gene for the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin. The faulty gene persists because even carrying one copy of it confers some resistance sto malaria. Therefore, people with normal haemoglobin Aare susceptible to death from malaria but people with sickle cell trait who have one gene for haemoglobin A and other for haemoglobin S have a greater chance of surviving malaria and do not suffer adverse consequences from the haemoglobin S gene.