Juvenile diabetes mellitus

Population studies in Israel have shown that Jews born in Europe or America have the highest prevalence of juvenile diabetes mellitus and Jews born in Asia or Africa, the lowest. The rate in the Israel born, regardless of the father's place of birth, is intermediate between those of the other two groups. The rates for the group from Europe/American and for the Israel-born group increased during the years 1963-68, while that for the Asia/Africa group did not change. It is speculated that the differences in the rates of juvenile diabetes mellitus are related to different frequencies of certain HLA antigens in the different groups or to different associations with susceptibility genes to juvenile diabetes.