Figure 7. Border between Finland and Russian Karelia, with a 6-fold difference in the incidence of T1D, from “Karelia today”. The countries share a common border and ancestry and thus have similar geography, climate, vitamin D levels, and prevalence of HLA risk haplotypes. However, Finland has 6- fold higher incidence of T1D. This markedly higher rate of T1D is accompanied by a much lower rate of infectious disease. In Finland as compared to Karelia 2% vs 24% had hepatitis A; 5% vs 24% had toxoplasma gondii; and 5% vs. 73% for helicobacter pylori. There is an ongoing study aiming to better understand the mechanisms that may underlie these differences.