Is it possible to be born with complete, long-term immunity to malaria?
Everyone is susceptible to getting malaria, even those who have been exposed to it before, but there is essentially one exception: those with rare, genetic blood disorders, most notably “sickle-cell anemia” [10]. Sickle-cell anemia is an inherited, lifelong disease that is passed down if a child receives one copy of the sickle-cell gene from each parent [4]. Normal red blood cells are shaped like doughnuts without holes and last about 120 days in the bloodstream [4]. Sickle red blood cells are shaped like a “C”, die after only about 10 to 20 days, and are physically not built to carry oxygen efficiently [4]. Red blood cells are essential for supplying oxygen to our organs and removing carbon dioxide, and a lower number of functional red blood cells can lead to life-long fatigue and serious complications [4]. If sickle-cell anemia is so maladaptive, then why has it been, evolutionarily speaking, “selected” to be passed on generation after generation? It so happens that the Plasmodium pa
