Erythrocyte Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Uganda

Abstract

DEFICIENCY in erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) has been found to be widespread in the tropics and sub-tropics^1–9 as well as in the Negro population of America¹⁰. Surveys of G-6-PD deficiency in limited areas and populations in Uganda have been reported before^11–13, but no country-wide screening for this deficiency in Uganda has been published. In the present investigation only African males were tested, by a screening test with the reduction of brilliant cresyl blue (National Aniline Division) as indicator¹⁴. The results, which are shown in Table 1, agree in general with findings in other countries, as well as with the 15 per cent prevalence in Kampala¹¹. The low prevalence in Kabale, however, is striking and compares with that of 2 per cent found in South African male Bantu¹⁵. Kabale, at an altitude of 6,000 ft., is situated in the highlands of Kigezi in South-West Uganda near the Rwanda border, and the prevalence of malaria there has been very much lower than elsewhere in Uganda. Conversely, endemic malaria is known to be more prevalent in Bundebugyo than elsewhere¹⁶, and Lehmann and Raper¹⁶ found there the exceptionally high sickling rate of 39 per cent. The prevalence of G-6-PD deficiency in Bundebugyo, which is slightly greater than average, was shown by tests made on a mixture of indigenous males and recent immigrants from the Fort Portal region. The prevalence among the people indigenous to Bundebugyo region may be considerably greater.