I attended a National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society symposium here in the UK several years ago.
One delegate took the opportunity to speak on this subject and if I remember rightly he said HLA-B27 was a great gene to have during the years of the Bubonic Plague in London (1563 and 1665) because those with HLA-B27 had a greater chance of surviving.
I also remember a post on KA several years ago mentioning the Haida people, a far Northern population where 50% are HLA-B27 positive (compared with only 7% in the Caucasian population); again because those with HLA-B27 had a greater chance of surviving - but this time of surviving the small-pox epidemics. OK so loads of them have AS, but to paraphrase a wise old Italian friend of mine, AS is something that happens to
living people.
Our pre-contact population was in the
tens of thousands in several dozen towns
dispersed throughout the islands. During the time
of contact our population fell to about 600, this
was due to introduced disease including measles, typhoid and smallpox.http://www.haidanation.ca/Pages/Haida_Nation/History.html(By the way, the gene also leads to people having a great sense of humour, a caring attitude and a soaring intellect. You only have to read this forum to see that!
)
Cheers,
