§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has concerning the incidence of sickle cell anaemia by ethnic grouping.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 27 November 1986; c. 357]: The incidence of sickle cell anaemia in different ethnic groups is very variable. While it is extremely rare in people of northern European extraction it is of significance in Afro-Caribbean, eastern Mediterranean and Asian polulations.
In certain Afro-Caribbean and eastern Mediterranean communities the proportion of people who carry the gene for sickle cell anaemia, but who do not have the disease, can vary from one person in 10 to one person in three. Amongst Asian populations the proportion may vary 72W from one person in 100 to one person in three. These gene frequencies amongst these communities may give rise to proportions of people who have sickle cell anaemia that range from one person in 40,000 to one person in 40.