It deals with the transfer of biological information from cell to cell, from parents to offspring and thus from generation to generation. Genetics has a major impact on all the areas of medicine.
Genetic diseases make up a large proportion of the total disease burden in the population.
Each human cell has approximately 50,000 to 100,000 different genes responsible for the human development and functions. Alterations in these genes or a combination of these can produce genetic disorders. Over 9,000 human genetic disease are known to date and the number increases day by day. In fact each one of us carry nearly 20 silent mutant genes. Genetic counselling represents one of the central foci of medical genetics, which helps people to identify and understand what particular traits that may pass on to their children and also to determine particular risks that may influence pregnancy outcome.