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How Jews Nearly Wiped Out Tay-Sachs Disease

(JTA) Ira Stoll - There used to be an entire hospital unit at Kingsbook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn devoted to taking care of children born with Tay-Sachs, a deadly genetic disease which is usually fatal by the age of 5. But by the late 1990s that unit was totally empty, and it eventually shut down. Since the 1970s, the incidence of Tay-Sachs has fallen by more than 90% among Jews, thanks to a combination of scientific advances and widespread screening for the disease. Until 1969, when doctors discovered the enzyme that made testing possible to determine whether parents were carriers of Tay-Sachs, 50 to 60 affected Jewish children were born each year in the U.S. and Canada. After mass screenings began in 1971, the numbers declined to two to five Jewish births a year, said Karen Zeiger, former Tay-Sachs prevention coordinator for California, whose first child died of Tay-Sachs.
2017-08-25 00:00:00
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