HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gajdusek, D. C. Articles by Brown, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gajdusek, D. C. Articles by Brown, P.

I. Introduction

Small populations living in marked isolation as hunters and gatherers, fisherfolk, or primitive hoe and digging-stick agriculturists, or plying isolated routes apart from major settled populations as migratory herders, often present medical problems that are unique or unusual. These groups are never large, but their importance to medicine may be disproportionately large because, for a number of reasons, they present unique situations of promise to investigations aimed at elucidations of the etiology, pathogenesis, ecology, or epidemiology of disease. These reasons lie in these peoples' close association with the flora and fauna, ectoparasites, and toxins of their geographically restricted territory; their lack of travel outside this territory, often in a lifetime; their high degree of inbreeding; and their customs, diets, and social patterns, which may result in a particular expression of a disease or a strange epidemiologic pattern. Thus, it is among such isolated groups that restricted populations with unusually high or unusually low incidence of certain diseases are to be found.