An Awareness about PROGERIA

Others people might use plastic surgery, Botox, and Collagen to looks young. But, it’s hard and impossible for these people to get young even if they want to and even if they use all of the medicine.

   

This is Ontlametse.

She lives in South Africa with her mother and dreams of being a psychologist. She goes to school along with all the other kids her age. She's a bright pupil, but has been scorned by classmates, teachers and others who think her figure means she has a contagious disease. She call herself a first lady because she is the first black child with this disease.

I’m refer to a very rare disease called Progeria. It is a rare, fatal genetic condition characterized by an appearance of accelerated aging in children. Eventually most of the patient are young. Very, very young. Although they are born looking healthy, children with Progeria begin to display many characteristics of accelerated aging at around 18-24 months of age. It’s an extremely rare genetic disease that effect one in 4 - 8 million new-borns worldwide. According to statistic, there has 134 children in 46 countries that living with Progeria.  The average lifespan of an individual with Progeria is only 13 years, with a range of from 7 to 27 years. In the past 15 years, children with Progeria have been reported all over the world, including in Argentina, Australia, Africa, Belgium, Canada, and China.

Today I will tell you about the sign & symptom of Progeria.

The skin start to aging

To be specific, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) or progeria is a disease where the appearances and physical characteristics of the patients are similar to an elderly individual or in other word they look like an elderly person. Their skin start to aging eight times faster than normal. A child of ten years will have similar respiratory, and cardiovascular conditions that a 70-year-old would have. This is because, like I mention before, progeria patient start to display a characteristics of accelerated aging at around 18-24 months of age although they are born normal and healthy. Take Ontlametse for example, her mom say her baby was born looking normal but that she realized early on that something was wrong. The baby suffered constant rashes and by the time she was three months old Phalatse thought she had a skin disease. Other than that, the appearance of progeria patient are so similar to each other that could be mistaken as a siblings even though they are from different background. It is important to remember that all children with Progeria have age appropriate intellect and personality. An eight-year-old with Progeria will think and act just like every other eight-year-old. Children with Progeria are smart and funny and full of life. It's the bodies of these children that are aging, not their minds.

       

Their grow start to slow and much shorter than others in their age.

Their growth and development appear normal during the first year of life but start to slow and much shorter than others in their age because of the progress somewhat below average. Although there is a very slow increase in height which may eventually reach that of a normal 3-year old child during this time, the slowness of the grow did not affect their talking and walking.

Ontlametse, who is half the size of her classmates, stands on a desk surrounded by her classmates. Ontlametse sits at her desk as her best friend, Katlego Mathabe, reaches down to her level during class.

 

Progeria patient are normal at birth although the tendency is for the birth weight to be less than (2.5 kg). Their weight remains almost the same at the one-year level and slightly increase only during the first decade. Both the increase in weight and in length remains behind but the weight increases the less and there will be no increase in the growth process in the pre-puberty or puberty.

 

Hair lost, clear visible blood vessels and the eyes

Early in the second year their hair will fall out so easily and be replaced by a few fuzzy. That’s make them get downy hair. Their hair of eyebrows and eye members also disappears almost entirely. The hair lost make their head bald and, a clear visible blood vessels can be seen. Because of the very slow increase in height there is an illusion of a large head which is accentuated by the lack of hair except for a fine downy growth and prominent scalp veins. The eyes are normal but often seem large in relation to the face which is thin and somewhat drawn out because of the decreased size of the facial bones.

  

Kids with progeria occur out of blue. There's no family history, no warning, no reason to think that this might be getting ready to happen,”.  The diagnosis of Progeria is a huge shock for family members. Unconditional love is absolutely necessary for these children. The child must have the opportunity to act and behave as a normal child.

In the past, doctors had to base a diagnosis of progeria solely on physical symptoms, such as skin changes and a failure to gain weight, that were not fully apparent until a child's first or second year of life. But nowadays, a genetic test for Progeria, is currently available. This genetic test now enables doctors to diagnose a child at a younger age and initiate treatment early in the disease process.

All picture/video and information from google, jurnal article and news and PROGERIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION..