01738nas a2200325   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001000055653001200065653001000077653002700087653002600114653001100140653002000151653001700171653001100188653001200199653000900211653002500220653001500245653000900260100001600269700001600285700002200301245005900323300001200382490000700394520099700401022001401398       1987                            d  c1987 Apr10aAdult10aAlleles10aChild10aDisease Susceptibility10aEpidemiologic Methods10aFemale10aGenetic Linkage10aHLA Antigens10aHumans10aleprosy10aMale10aMycobacterium leprae10aNew Guinea10aRisk1 aShields E D1 aRussell D A1 aPericak-Vance M A00aGenetic epidemiology of the susceptibility to leprosy.  a1139-430 v793 a<p>To test the hypothesis that genetic factors are operative in the predisposition to leprosy (Hansen's disease) in humans, a genetic epidemiologic investigation was performed on 269 leprosy kindreds containing 552 affected individuals from an isolated population in Papua New Guinea. The community, and not the family, was the basic social unit. Leprosy, an infectious disease, was not communal but strongly familial within the Karimui. Segregation analysis, to determine whether a major gene for the susceptibility to leprosy was segregating within a single multi-generational kindred, could not differentiate between a Mendelian genetic and a purely environmental hypothesis. The composite kindred data, however, suggest a genetic hypothesis for the non-immunologically induced susceptibility to leprosy per se. Within familial kindreds leprosy invariably emanated from a common ancestral sibship, and risk was associated with the closeness of kin but not with infectivity or severity.</p>  a0021-9738