Paphos Life

Young couples, especially from Paphos, ought to get tested before deciding to have children to discover if they are at a high risk of having a child with the rare Ataxia disease, the Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) said on Tuesday....

Read the article and chat about it below...

Have been looking up what Ataxia is. It seems to cover a group of disorders linked to difficulties with a persons balance and co ordination with movements of various parts of the body. It is linked to part of the brain. Only one type can be inherited from one or both parents. It seems that there are a number of possible reasons why a person can develop a type of Ataxia and It may be passed on to different generations of susceptible families.
I wonder if the reason for the supposed number of people who suffer from this disease in the Paphos area may be due to the historical isolation of the Paphos area which meant that a small population had a tendency to inter marry persons in the same village or a neighbouring one down the road? Thalassemia is another prevalent disease in the Paphos villages.
Dee

Aww Dee, this is a huge problem, but you may be on the right track. It has to be a Famial related situation.

I lived in Bradford for 13 years before I moved here and it was a real problem there then, and still is I believe due to inter marrying.

Not sure what the solution may be, Bradford and the UK Government haven't solved it yet, in spite of the money thrown at it, so I hold out little hope for Cyprus. It certainly won't stop by simply telling the population that it is a problem. Uk has thrown tons of cash at this so far, but results are negligible. The problems in Bradford are still of serious concern.