title: Comorbidity in the Tunisian population.
abstract: Genetic diseases in the Tunisian population represent a real problem of public health as their spectrum encompasses more than 400 disorders. Their frequency and distribution in the country have been influenced by demographic, economic and social features especially consanguinity. In this article, we report on genetic disease association referred to as comorbidity and discuss factors influencing their expressivity. Seventy-five disease associations have been reported among Tunisian families. This comorbidity could be individual or familial. In 39 comorbid associations, consanguinity was noted. Twenty-one founder and 11 private mutations are the cause of 34 primary diseases and 13 of associated diseases. As the information dealing with this phenomenon is fragmented, we proposed to centralize it in this report in order to draw both clinicians' and researcher's attention on the occurrence of such disease associations in inbred populations as it makes genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis challenging even when mutations are known.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.|Department of Biology, Faculty of Science of Bizerte, Université Tunis Carthage, Zarzouna, Tunisia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romdhane
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Messaoud
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bouyacoub
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Pharmacologie, Faculté de Médecine de Monastir, Université de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kerkeni
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Naouali
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cherif Ben Abdallah
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tiar
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charfeddine
authors.affiliation: EPS Fattouma Bourguiba, Centre de Maternité & de Néonatologie de Monastir, Service de Réanimation et de Médecine Néonatale, Monastir, Tunisia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Monastiri
authors.affiliation: Service de Pédiatrie, CHU Hédi Chaker, Sfax, Tunisia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chabchoub
authors.affiliation: Service de Pédiatrie, CHU Hédi Chaker, Sfax, Tunisia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hachicha
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health, Jinan University, Tripoli, Lebanon.
authors.forename: G O
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Tadmouri
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche Policlinico Sant'Orsola-Malpighi, Unità Operativa di Genetica Medica, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abdelhak
mesh_terms: D015897:Comorbidity; D003241:Consanguinity; D005260:Female; D018703:Founder Effect; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010375:Pedigree; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Tunisia; comorbidity; consanguinity; founder mutation; genetic counseling; genetic disease; genetic mapping; prenatal diagnosis