SMA Facts

 

  • NUMBER ONE GENETIC KILLER of infants and children under the age of two.

  • 1 in 6,000 live births affected YEARLY by SMA.

  • One in Forty ADULTS carries the SMA gene, most unknowingly.

  • THERE IS NO CURE.

  • SMA is a genetic disorder that affects all voluntary muscles in the body.

  • SMA is an inherited condition in which both parents carry one defective gene, but exhibit no symptoms; their children have a 1 in 4 or 25% chance of inheriting SMA

  • SMA is a group of inherited and sometimes fatal diseases that robs children and adults of basic functions most take for granted, such as swallowing, breathing, neck control, hugging, crawling and walking.
  • SMA causes the muscles to atrophy because something is wrong with the anterior horn cells which reside in the spinal cord and are the main motor nerves that control function of the muscles

  • Children with SMA are intelligent and sensitive, and unusually sociable. 

  • Most people have never heard of SMA.  Please help us to change this horribly sad fact.