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Adaptation to infectious disease. Australia antigen and hepatitis
Author(s) -
Blumberg Baruch S.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330320220
Subject(s) - antigen , adaptation (eye) , biology , virology , immunology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , hepatitis , virus , mechanism (biology) , disease , medicine , pathology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience
Infectious diseases have probably acted as selective forces to generate polymorphisms in human populations. An example is given of a study related to this concept. There is evidence that “Australia antigen” is a hepatitis virus or closely associated with it. In some tropical populations there appears to be an inherited susceptibility to chronic infection with “Au(1) virus” controlled by a simple genetic mechanism. There are strikingly different frequencies of Australia antigen in different populations and these may have been determined by differences in the selective pressures in different environments.