A 14-year-old boy has been left with the body of a 110-year-old in India
because he has a rare disease which makes him age eight times faster
than normal. Ali Hussain has seen five of his siblings die from the same
condition called Progeria which is known to affect just 80 people
worldwide.
Two of his brothers and three of his sisters have died from the disease
in Bihar, the poorest state in India. The rare condition is known to
affect only 80 people in the world, but has killed five of his siblings
Progeria causes rapid ageing and sufferers of the genetic disease are
prone to arthritis, eye problems, heart disease and baldness. Sufferers
are not expected to live much beyond the age of 14 – but despite the
grim-prognosis Ali has refused togive up hope. “I very much want to live
and I hope there is medicine for my condition out there.
I’m not scared of death but my parents have suffered a lot. I’d love to
live much longer for them. I don’t want to burden them with any more
pain.” Ali’s parents Nabi Hussain Khan, 50, and Razia, 46, are first
cousins and were the product of an arranged marriage 32 years ago. Their
children Rehana, Iqramul, Gudiya and Rubina have all died from Progeria
between the ages of 12 and24.
A fifth child, a boy who died within 24 hours of being born, is also
thought to have had the rare condition.Nabia and Razia, who have had
eight children in total, do have two healthy daughters – Sanjeeda, 20,
who is married with two children of her own. Their youngest daughter
Chanda, 10, also does not have Progeria. When their first daughter,
Rehana, was born in 1983 they had no idea anything was wrong at first.
It was only after her secondbirthday when she couldn’t eat or walk
properly did they visit a doctor. But the doctor was baffled and he sent
them home with some medicines. Progeria was so rare and poorly
documented that most doctors had never heard of it.
