Medical Genetics in Paraguay

Paraguay is a country located in the center of South America, sharing borders with Brazil to the east and northeast, Argentina to the west and southwest, and Bolivia to the northwest. It is divided in two regions, Occidental (western) and Oriental (eastern), separated by the river Paraguay. The regions are in turn subdivided in 17 departments plus the capital district (Fig. 1). The country has a total surface area of 406,752 km, roughly the same size as the state of California. The population in 2013 was 6,709,730 (General Bureau of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses, Permanent Survey of Homes 2013). The western region accounts for 60.7% of the whole territory, but according to data from the 2002 national census, only 2.6% of the population lived there. Thus, there is an uneven population distribution through the country, and the majority of people live around the capital city of Asunci on. The population is fairly young, with a median age of 23.59 years (WHO Global Health Observatory, Summary of statistics). The life expectancy at birth is 72 years for males and 78 years for females (WHO Global Health Observatory, Life tables). The GDP in 2013 was $2995 billion (World Bank, Paraguay), for a GDP per capita of $4403 (World Bank, GDP per capita). The human development index, a composite statistic of life expectancy, income and education indices, was 0.676 in 2013 – in the medium human development category – positioning the country at 111 out of 187 countries (United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2014). Population Diversity