Recessive diseases are hereditary diseases. They are not common but they are often serious and incurable. They have the peculiarity that a person may be a carrier but does have any health issues. It is for this reason that they are called ‘healthy carriers.’
This circumstance makes diagnosis particularly difficult since we can come across families in which there are entire generations without the disease or in which the disease has not previously come to light. As such, until recently, it was impossible or very difficult to know if a person was a carrier or not.
Most of us are healthy carries of some form of recessive disease and, on the whole, this is not an issue as long as our partner is not a carrier of the same disease, in which case there are implications for our children. […]