El Pais – Science & Tech
In the 18th century, a man — likely from Spain — brought a mysterious disease to the region of present-day Antioquia in Colombia. This individual had a unique genetic mutation — not present in previous generations — which condemned him to an unenviable fate: sudden memory loss at around 44 years of age and early Alzheimer’s at around 49. Today, about 6,000 descendants of that man live in Antioquia, and 1,200 of them carry that mutation, known as E280A or Paisa. Early dementia is so common that in some villages it has popular names, such as “la bobera” after the Spanish word for fool.