The Epidemiology Of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease was first ever discussed in a letter by Charles Oscar Waters in 1842. It was then described by Charles Gorman in 1846. Symptoms of the disease were described by Johan Christian in 1860. In 1872 George Huntington gave the first complete description of the disease based on his research and so the disease was named after him. In 1993 the huntingtin gene was located.
Today in the USA there are approximately 30,000 people with Huntington's disease or approximately one in every 30,000 people in the USA have Huntington's disease. Worldwide it's estimated that for every 100,000 people 5-10 will have Huntington's disease.
Huntington's disease is an inherited disease, it affect both men and women equally. A child can inherit the disease from one or both parents that carry the Huntington's disease gene. If a parent carries the Huntington's disease gene their child has a 50 percent chance of inheriting the disease gene. If a child of someone that has Huntington's disease does not inherit the disease gene there is no chance of passing the disease to a child of their own. Huntington's disease is not the type of disease that skips generations. Often time’s people have children and their children have …show more content…
Some people develop signs of the disease before they are twenty. The cases of people who develop signs of the disease before twenty are said to have juvenile Huntington's disease. One in six cases of Huntington's disease are juvenile cases, so it is rare for someone to have juvenile Huntington's disease. Research shows that the faster Huntington's disease symptoms arise the faster the disease progresses. Life expectancy after the disease is discovered is usually ten to thirty years for adults with Huntington's disease. For young people with juvenile Huntington's disease the life expectancy is approximately ten years after the disease gets