eople that have a single allele (gene copy) for sickle cell anemia are typically not sick from the disease and are said to be carriers of sickle cell trait. These people will more often live in the malaria belt of sub-Saharan Africa. The most likely explanation for this is . malaria is a cause of sickle cell trait people with sickle cell trait have a better chance of surviving malaria sickle cell trait is passed on to the biting mosquitoes as malaria There is no correlation between a single allele for the pathology and the ability to survive or fight malaria.