An epidemiological and genetic study of congenital profound deafness in Tunisia (governorate of Nabeul).

An epidemiological and genetic study of profound deafness has been undertaken in the governorate of Nabeul in Tunisia. This paper deals with sensorineural deafness with no associated abnormalities. The prevalence was estimated to be 0.0007 and four clusters could be identified, two of which represent 51% and 34% respectively of the total number of cases. Segregation analysis performed in 29 pedigrees containing 415 subjects with 129 affected cases provided evidence for simple recessive inheritance with no sporadic cases.