HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE CONFIRMED BY GENETIC TESTING IN 5 AFRICAN FAMILIES

Huntington's disease is an autosomal-dominant inherited progressive ne urodegenerative disease associated with an expanded trinucleotide repe at (CAG) sequence on the short of chromosome 4. The disease is conside red rare in Africans. We report five black South African families of d ifferent ethnic origin with proven expansions typical of Huntington's disease and discuss the possible origins of the disease in Africa.