Retraction to: Nature Medicine https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0459-6, Published online 3 June 2019.

The authors are retracting this Brief Communication to correct the scientific literature. Arising from exchanges with David Reich and colleagues, they have been made aware of a genotyping calling bias in the underlying UK Biobank data from which the main results of the study were drawn. Further analyses confirmed that the central finding of the study – that homozygous CCR5-∆32 mutation is associated with increased mortality in the UK Biobank – is a result of this technical artifact. Because the main conclusion of the paper is invalid, both authors, Xinzhu Wei and Rasmus Nielsen, wish and agree to retract the Brief Communication in its entirety.