‘We’re all like fourth cousins’: doctor’s genetic warning to Malta

Malta’s population is so small that people don’t realise how related they are to each other, consultant immunologist Keith Sacco (inset) says. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

An immunologist has urged Malta to allow couples the option of free genetic testing to help prevent rare diseases that he believes are the result of generations of inbreeding.“Genetically, we are like fourth cousins,” says Keith Sacco, a visiting specialist at Saint James Hospital every six weeks, where he sees many patients with rare diseases.He...