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Duffy negativity
Last Post 04/20/2021 12:11 AM by 79 pmooney. 2 Replies.
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79pmooney

Posts:3178

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04/19/2021 12:15 PM
I just had my eyes opened to another link between genetics and malaria. Duffy negativity. Like sickle cell, a genetic blood disorder (or departure from the majority of humans), a condition that renders the carriers far more resistant to malaria. I won't even try to explain this. The most elemental reader I could find was Wikipedia and that was way over my head.

Like sickle cell, it suggests a wave of killer malaria some time between 6700 and 95000 years ago through Africa. (Don't quote me on those numbers. I didn't write them down and going back through Wikipedia I couldn't find that sentence.

Apparently this phenomenon has happened to varying degrees in a number of races and tribes throughout the world and in animals as diverse as apes and mice. I am going to have to just see what comes along to be read (hopefully in more layman's terms). But one significant take that was just one sentence but both big and matches something I've seen. Blacks with this negativity do poorly when given transfusions of non-negative blood (ie from the general blood bank). I knew a woman of Korean and Chinese descent with a different but similar to sickle cell genetic blood disorder. She required transfusions when she went onto crisis. The blood she received here made her sick. When she visited relatives in Korea she received transfusions in both Japan and Korea with no issue.

And related - my local sports hero, the Portland Trailblazer when I moved to Portland 22 years ago - Brian Grant. He started a campaign to get blacks to give blood and enroll Blacks into the bone marrow program - because he understood that Blacks needed bone marrow from genetically similar, ie Black donors. Sadly, he was traded away. Came down with Parkinson's. I believe his efforts got derailed and he's had a lot on his hands since he returned to Portland to live.

So new terms for me - Duffy antigen and Duffy antigen negativity. I've been reading a lot of facts relating to malaria, genetic resistance to it and efforts to contain it. I suspect I am going to see a lot more in the near future.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-mosquitoes-helped-shape-the-course-of-human-history?utm_source=pocket-newtab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duffy_antigen_system
Dale

Posts:1767

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04/19/2021 10:21 PM
Sickle cell anemia fascinated me as a 12 yearly kid when my science teacher dad explained blood types (and for a family activity we used lancets, drew samples, and tested our blood. I'm AB+).
The genetic unfairness struck then and I've carried that interest since. My will/ funeral directives instructs in lieu of flowers send $ to sickle cell research.
79pmooney

Posts:3178

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04/20/2021 12:11 AM
My friend was initially diagnosed with sickle cell. Shouldn't have been possible, her being Asian, but her symptoms fit. I went to the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle and xeroxed everything their library had in language I could read about SC. What an eye opener! (For a part - how long before our medical community took any interest at all. If your disease cannot touch whites, taking a century or two to get around to it is just priorities.

Moved to Portland several years later. My coworker was Black. Told me early on that his daughter had SC. At 12 years old, she hadn't seen symptoms yet. I left that job but would get sweet cards from her every Xmas. Was reunited with my coworker at another job 8 years later and would get regular updates on her health. A rocky ride I wouldn't wish on anybody. She knew the workings of the hospital world very well.

Slightly off-topic but not really - opiate addicts with SC. In any humane world they should be issued cards that they are SC and that they need this XXX huge dose in a crisis because of their drug tolerance. When in crisis, nothing is fun. That huge dose isn't a high, just what is needed for the pain not to be excruciating. Not giving them that dose is like not giving a non-addict the appropriate opiates for a crisis. (A sickle cell crisis is easy to diagnose. Require that the addict take the opiate on sight.) I will never know but all I read suggests not upping the dosage for those addicts is like not giving opiates for broken ribs. I've broken ribs. That medication is God's gift.
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