The frequencies of low-activity alleles of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in humans are highly correlated with the prevalence of malaria. These "deficiency" alleles are thought to provide reduced risk from infection by the Plasmodium parasite and are maintained at high frequency despite the hemopathologies that they cause. Haplotype analysis of "A-" and "Med" mutations at this locus indicates that they have evolved independently and have increased in frequency at a rate that is too rapid to be explained by random genetic drift. Statistical modeling indicates that the A- allele arose within the past 3840 to 11,760 years and the Med allele arose within the past 1600 to 6640 years. These results support the hypothesis that malaria has had a major impact on humans only since the introduction of agriculture within the past 10,000 years and provide a striking example of the signature of selection on the human genome.

ABSTRACT.Purpose: The aim of the present work was to ascertain, through the administration of a psychosocial questionnaire, the difficulties that subjects with defective colour vision experience in carrying out everyday tasks and work, including driving a car with a driver's licence held for no more than 3 years. Methods: Subjects with defective colour vision (n = 151) and subjects with normal vision (n = 302) completed a psychosocial questionnaire regarding the difficulties associated with congenital colour vision deficiency in daily life, work and driving a car. Subjects were diagnosed as colour-blind using the Ishihara test. Results: Statistically significant differences between the two samples were found for daily life activities. Subjects with defective colour vision preferred daytime driving. At night, subjects with defective colour vision had difficulty identifying reflectors on the road and the rear signal lights of cars ahead of them. Conclusion: Colour-blind Calabrian subjects admitted to experiencing colour-related difficulties with a wide range of occupational tasks and leisure pursuits. In particular, colour-blind Calabrian subjects preferred daytime driving, and fewer drove regularly, compared to orthochromatics, who were indifferent to night or daytime driving.

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In Italy, malaria was an endemic disease that was eradicated by the mid-20th century. This paper evaluates the prophylactic and therapeutic remedies used by folk medicine to cure malaria in Calabria (southern Italy).The data has been collected by analysing works of physicians, ethnographers, folklorists and specialists of the study of Calabrian history between the end of the 19th century and the 20th century. The data collected have allowed us to describe the most common cures used by the Calabrian people to treat malaria and the most evident symptoms of this disease, such as intermittent fever, hepato-spleenomegaly, asthenia and dropsy. This approach uncovered a heterogeneous corpus of empirical, magical and religious remedies, which the authors have investigated as evidences of past "expert medicine" and to verify their real effectiveness in the treatment of malaria.