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In a first, doctors treat fatal genetic disease before birth

In this photo provided by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ayla Bashir sits with her mother, Sobia Qureshi, during a physical therapy assessment for Ayla at CHEO in Ottawa on Aug. 23, 2022. The toddler is the first child treated as fetus for Pompe disease, an inherited and fatal disorder in which the body fails to make some or all of a crucial protein. (André Coutu/CHEO via AP) In this photo provided by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Zahid Bashir holds his daughter, Ayla Bashir, with her mother, Sobia Qureshi, at the Ottawa Hospital during an infusion day at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, on Aug. 24, 2022. The toddler is the first child treated as fetus for Pompe disease, an inherited and fatal disorder in which the body fails to make some or all of a crucial protein. (André Coutu/CHEO via AP) This 2022 photo provided by the University of California, San Francisco shows enzyme replacement therapy medication used to treat a child, before she was born, for a rare genetic disease that led to the deaths of two of her sisters. In a case study published Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors describe an international collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the treatment that may have saved Ayla Bashir’s life – and expanded the field of potential fetal therapies. (UCSF via AP) In this photo provided by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ayla Bashir and her mother, Sobia Qureshi, meet with Dr. Karen Fung Kee Fung, right, of the Ottawa Hospital during an infusion day at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, on Aug. 24, 2022. The toddler is the first child treated as fetus for Pompe disease, an inherited and fatal disorder in which the body fails to make some or all of a crucial protein. (André Coutu/CHEO via AP) In this photo provided by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ayla Bashir sits with her mother, Sobia Qureshi, during a physical therapy assessment for Ayla at CHEO in Ottawa on Aug. 23, 2022. The toddler is the first child treated as fetus for Pompe disease, an inherited and fatal disorder in which the body fails to make some or all of a crucial protein. (André Coutu/CHEO via AP)