A medical breakthrough is giving new hope to families worldwide, as a three-year-old boy becomes first ever patient with Hunter syndrome to receive a pioneering gene therapy.
What is Hunter syndrome?
Hunter syndrome is a rare inherited disorder that slowly damages both the body and the brain over time.
In some of the worst cases, patients with the disease typically die before turning 20 and its effects are often referred to as a form of childhood dementia.
Hunter syndrome mostly affects boys and appeared in about one out of every 100,000 male births worldwide.
The child, name Oliver Chu was born with a faulty gene that prevented his body from producing a vital enzyme needed to keep cells healthy, as per BBC.
Doctors in Manchester have made a remarkable world-first attempt to stop the disease by changing Oliver's cells through gene therapy.
Professor Simon Jones, one of the leaders of the trial told the BBC that he has waited two decades to see a child with this condition improve the way Oliver did and "its just so exciting."
Children with condition appear healthy at birth but symptoms usually start around age two.
These can include changes in facial features, stiff limbs and shorter height. This disease can damage many parts of the body including heart, liver, bones and joints and in the most severe cases, it can cause serious mental disability and progressive brain and nervous system decline.
