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Tay–Sachs disease, which can present as a fatal illness of children that causes mental deterioration prior to death, was historically extremely common among Ashkenazi Jews, [19] with lower levels of the disease in some Pennsylvania Dutch, Italian, Irish Catholic, and French Canadian descent, especially those living in the Cajun community of ...
Ashkenazi Jews have been screened as Tay–Sachs carriers since carrier testing began in 1971. Since the 1970s, many Jewish communities have embraced genetic screening, and in 1971, Israel became the first country to offer free genetic screening [1] and counseling for Tay–Sachs disease and other diseases, leading to international discussion about the proper scope of genetic testing.
Ashkenazi Jews have a high incidence of Tay–Sachs and other lipid storage diseases. In the United States, about 1 in 27 to 1 in 30 Ashkenazi Jews is a recessive carrier. The disease incidence is about 1 in every 3,500 newborn among Ashkenazi Jews. [39]
In both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish communities, there is an increased rate of a number of genetic disorders such as Tay–Sachs disease, an autosomal recessive disorder that goes unnoticed in carriers, but is fatal within the first few years of life in almost all homozygotes.
Taken together, sphingolipidoses have an incidence of approximately 1 in 10,000, but substantially more in certain populations such as Ashkenazi Jews. Enzyme replacement therapy is available to treat mainly Fabry disease and Gaucher disease, and people with these types of sphingolipidoses may live well into adulthood. The other types are ...
Although no cure for Tay–Sachs disease has been found, antenatal genetic screening has virtually eliminated the disease in the Ashkenazi Jewish population in both the United States and Israel. In 1979, Kaback served on the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel to recommend antenatal diagnosis in cases where a couple might be at risk ...
Hackers have compiled a giant apparent list of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry after taking that information from the genetic testing service 23andMe, which is now being shared on the internet.
The Program for Jewish Genetic Health offers educational programs – both live and online – to various sectors of the community to educate them on Jewish genetic health issues, including the Ashkenazi Jewish link to breast and ovarian cancer, Parkinson's disease, and prostate cancer, as well as alternative family planning options such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.