Re: Some illnesses and treatments are race specific
Races exist culturally, they do not exist biologically. The majority of illnesses are biological, cultural illnesses do exist but are mainly down to how symptoms are explained and perceived culturally. I have been told the German condition of Herzinsuffizienz does not exist elsewhere for instance. What we do have is clusters of genes that are more typically found in certain geographic areas.
That's why we have issues that have a higher prevalence around the Mediterranean than elsewhere, issues that are common in people of West-African/European origin but virtually non-existent in East Africa (not surprising as West Africans and Europeans are genetically extremely similar whereas East-Africans couldn't be more different), issues that are common in the Caribbean but less common elsewhere etc. etc.
You some times see blanket suggestions for people with certain backgrounds to do further screening for specific issues, screening for Thalassaemia for people with "a Mediterranean background" or Sickle-Cell for people with "a West-African background" for instance but any decisions will be based on biologically proven situations detected in testing and not on whether someone "looks West-African" or "looks Mediterranean".
Any medical professional that bases their decisions on cultural constructs like character, race or class should be on the receiving end of an investigation.
