Haemoglobinopathies in Libya.

Electrophoretic study of haemolysates from five hundred and forty-five subjects from the University of Garyounis, Benghazi, was carried out to find out the incidence of abnormal haemoglobins in Libya. Abnormal haemoglobins were encountered in 23 subjects of unrelated families, giving an overall incidence of 4.2 per cent. Sixteen of these subjects had Hb-AS trait (3.0%), Five subjects had Hb-AC trait (0.9%) and two subjects had Hb-AD trait (0.36%). Present study indicates that the incidence of abnormal haemoglobins in the indigenous population of Libya is low.