Sickle cell and thalassaemic genes in Libya.

An electrophoretic study of haemolysates from 1350 subjects from the indigenous population of Libya was carried out to find the incidence of abnormal haemoglobins and thalassaemia. Sickle cell disease was detected in five (0.37%), sickle cell trait in 61 (4.51%), sickle cell thalassaemia in three (0.21%), homozygous betathalassaemia in 16 (1.20%), heterozygous delta-beta thalassaemia in 25 (1.85%) and heterozygous beta-thalassaemia in 105 (7.77%). The incidence of the sickle cell gene is low, but that of the thalassaemic gene appears to be high in the Libyan population which is racially mixed, containing Arab, Mediterranean and Negroid types.