Where in the world are Parkinson’s disease cases most common? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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More and more people around the world are being affected by Parkinson’s disease, a common condition often showing up first as a movement disorder. Liana Rosenthal, a Johns Hopkins neurologist, says North Americans are especially hard hit.

Rosenthal: The overall prevalence of Parkinson's disease is highest in the industrial world. The US and Canada are very high, Africa is comparatively lower, Australia is kind of somewhere in the middle. So this then leads to the discussion of the environmental factors. Those exposed to pesticides and herbicides 10 plus years before the start of study had a 70% higher incidence of PD 10 to 20 years later. Farmers who were not exposed to pesticides had no increased risk.       :31

Rosenthal says the link between pesticide and herbicide exposure is pretty convincing since it seems to follow a dose response. The more exposure the greater one’ s likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.