Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a group of inherited diseases that cause progressive muscle degeneration and weakness, eventually leading to death. I was not aware how common this condition was until I started researching it. I discovered that 4 out of every 100,000 people suffer from this condition. This is the second leading cause of neuromuscular disease. People who have Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) get it from a defective gene from both parents.
Those who have SMA usually are born with it, rarely does it develop later in life.
Signs of SMA include:
- Symptoms in an infant:
- Breathing difficulty
- Feeding difficulty
- Floppy infant (poor muscle tone)
- Lack of head control
- Little spontaneous movement
- Progressive weakness (older infant to toddler)
- Very weak infant
Symptoms in a child:
- Frequent, increasingly severe respiratory infections
- Nasal speech
- Worsening posture
There is no treatment or prevention at this time for SMA, and the prognosis is fatal.
Ways to help:
Offer your support to families who are affected by SMA and visit this site to help where you can http://www.curesma.org/
