Young couples from Paphos advised to get checked for rare disease before having kids

CyprusMail online, September 26th, 2018 Evie Andreou: 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.
n a written statement to mark International Ataxia Awareness Day – September 25 – CING said that in Cyprus high rates of patients have been identified in the Paphos district. Following a study in 2001-2002 it was found that about one in 12 people are carriers in the wider Paphos district. The frequency of carriers in European populations ranges between one in 50 to one in 100 people.