(Progeria)

I know you all must have read or heard about it ................seeing Paa (movie) based on this diseases.
BUT
How many of you kown What it is???
Life in a fast forward mode ya you can say this ...a child who is 2 yrs of age but biologically is 15yrs...shocking!!!!!

The word Progeria comes from the Greek word progeros meaning 'prematurely old'. The Greek word pro means 'before', while the word geras means 'old age'.
Progeria was first described in an academic journal by Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson in 1886, and Dr. Hastings Gilford in 1897 - both in England.
There is a reported incidence of Progeria of approximately 1 in every 4 to 8 million newborns. Both boys and girls run an equal risk of having Progeria. At present there are 53 known cases of Progeria around the world.
Progeria patients generally die between the ages of 8 and 21 - with the average age being 13.

Charactristics of Progeria

Children with Progeria are born looking healthy. When they are about 10 to 24 months old, features of accelerated aging start to appear. Signs of Progeria may include:
Growth failure
Loss of body fat
Loss of hair
Skin starts to look aged
Stiffness in the joints
Hip dislocation
Generalized atherosclerosis (cardio and heart disease)
Stroke

How it is caused.....                                                            ( A 7yr old progerian ).
Progeria is a rare condition that is remarkable because its symptoms strongly resemble normal human aging, but occur in young children.

Ninety percent of children with progeria have a mutation on the gene that encodes the protein lamin A. Progeria usually occurs without cause. It is only very rarely seen in more than one child in a family
 
 Treatment Hope......                                 
Farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs), currently used for treating cancer, might reverse the nuclear structure abnormalities that are believed to cause Progeria. Studies carried out on mice with Progeria-like signs and symptoms showed that FTIs appeared to offer some improvements. Of the 13 mice treated with FTI, only one died during the 20-week UCLS study. Dr Leslie Gordon, director of the Progeria Research Foundation, said: "This study gives us pieces of information critical to our movement toward clinical trials in children with progeria."

After I gone Through this study i can only say...............I am lucky..!!! 
Just visit to this link .....a page about a progerian ... MUST VISIT :) 

Hayley's Progeria Page

JAYA...