Does Northern Scotland really have one of the highest rates of Huntington’s disease in the world?

Yesterday we had: BBC Scotland and STV today have short reports on the higher level of Huntington’s disease in the North of Scotland but with no useful content to inform and to educate readers in the manner they often claim to do, leaving readers with just another ‘Scotland is ****’ story that they can quietly associate with 18 years of SNP-rule.

In response today from JB:

The above is based on a new study by the University of Aberdeen who state that…

“The study, published in Neuroepidemiology, confirmed that Northern Scotland has one of the highest rates of Huntington’s disease in the world at 14.5 per 100,000 people, it is more than five times the estimated worldwide rate of 2.71 per 100,000 people.”

True number of people living with Huntington’s disease gene in Northern Scotland revealed | News | The University of Aberdeen

 In 2010 a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine stated that…

“Previous studies based on 15 locations in the UK produced an estimated prevalence of 6.7 cases per 100,000 population. However, Professor Rawlins points out that the Huntington’s Disease Association (HDA)-a not-for-profit organisation that provides services for patients with the disease and their families in England and Wales-currently cares for 6702 people with symptoms. Professor Rawlins says: “Specialist neurologists have referred all of them, so their diagnoses can hardly be in doubt. From these numbers alone, the minimum prevalence in England and Wales must therefore be at least 12·4 per 100 000.”

Since the HDA does not cover all areas of England and Wales, Professor Rawlins says even this 12·4 per 100 000 estimate must be an underestimate.”

Huntington’s disease greatly underestimated in the UK | LSHTM

With the bold statement from Aberdeen University that “The number of people who have the gene that causes Huntington’s disease in Northern Scotland has been accurately counted for the first time in 35 years” and England and Wales at 12.4 per 100 000, with not all areas covered and being an “underestimate” might the figures be the same or even higher than Scotland at 14.5 per 100 000?

JB

10 thoughts on “Does Northern Scotland really have one of the highest rates of Huntington’s disease in the world?”

  2. Has Damn Jaikie Bailley and her Tory handbag carrier , Brylcreem Gulhane , not yet blamed the Scottish Government for this ? Has she not called for the resignation of the Scottish Health Secretary ?

    This is a clear dereliction of duty by Damn Jaikie !

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  3. Excellent piece of sleuthing Prof. Because the disease is genetic, there may be differences in areas where there hasn’t been much population churn.

    But there are so many confounders – Dounreay, prevalence of ticks and Lyme’s disease and maybe high antibiotic use, lack of sunshine and Vitamin D, and no Scotsman will eat a vegetable – more research is definitely called for.

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  6. Well I have to take my criticism back…

    Having not seen anything on either of the BBC Scotland web-pages furrnrs are permitted to see, thought to Google “Huntingdon’s Disease” for the last week, and bingo, an article by Laura Goodwin and Ken Banks of BBC Scotland https://archive.ph/3m4af

    A pretty decent article it is too, presumably published on a North-East sub page only visible in the UK….

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