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What is SMA?
What Causes SMA?
Who is Affected by SMA?
What are the health needs
of children with SMA?
Do all people with SMA have
the same symptoms?
Understanding
SMA
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Who is affected by SMA?Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the number one genetic killer of children under the age of two.
SMA is the 2nd most common diseased gene, making it one of the most prevalent genetic disorders.
One in every 40 people carries the abnormal gene that causes SMA. That is 7 million Americans.
Unlike other genetic diseases, SMA has no gender or racial preferences.
One in every 6,000 babies is born with SMA; two children each day in the United States. Over 60% of children are diagnosed before 6 months of age and 90 percent of those children will die before their second birthday.
SMA is relatively common yet virtually unheard of in the general public. SMA is as common as Cystic Fibrosis in the entire population and Tay-Sachs in the Jewish population.
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