The Importance of Genetic Disease and the Need for Prevention

Until recently the effects of disease could only be reduced by prevention and treatment. It is now possible to interrupt development after fetal diagnosis. This prevents birth, but not the cause of the disease, and is usefully termed `avoidance'. Genetic disorders are the consequence of mutational events in the past, including the remote and the immediate past, and prevention, in its true sense, can only be applied to preventing further mutations. This requires a knowledge both of the mechanism of mutation and of the mutagens to which populations and individuals are exposed, and the maintenance of public health requires the collection of data relevant to mutational disease.