Tay Sachs Disease
What are the Signs or Symptoms of Tay Sachs?
There are two forms of Tay Sachs disease, the infantile or infant form and the late-onset form or adult form. The symptoms of infantile form are more severe to the late onset form of Tay Sachs.
Late-Onset Form
Infantile Form
Individuals that have the infantile form of Tay Sachs they don’t show symptoms of the disorder right away, it takes about 3 to 5 months for the symptoms to appear. Babies with Tay Sachs completely lack the Hexa A protein. Therefore the disorder is more severe. Symptoms of the disease are slow growth rate, weakened muscle strength, weakened mental process, they gradually loss their vision, have stiff movements, and loss essential skills such as sitting up or crawling. Due to the brain being damaged.
As they begin to get older they have seizures, it’s hard for them to swallow, deafness, confusion, loss vision which eventually leads to blindness. As they get older, they will slowly not respond to the things around them. Due to the brain being damaged even more.
From the age of 3 to 5 years old they have life threatening risks, most babies with Tay Sachs die at the age of 5 years old.
Although Tay Sachs can occur in any background, group, race and gender. It is most common in people of the Ashkenazi Jewish desent, every 1 in aprox. 25000 Jewish babies will be affected by Tay Sachs, and 1 in 25 parents are carriers of the disease. Other backgrounds that Tay Sachs affects is seperated groups of French Canadians, Louisiana Cajuns, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, an other regions.
The late-onset form of Tay Sachs disease is not as harmful as the infantile form because there is not a complete lack of the protein whereas in infants there is no Hexa A protein at all. Due to some of the protein being present the Ganglioside doesn’t accumulate as fast. Therefore the symptoms of the late-onset form are much slower than in infants.
Late-onset form of Tay Sachs very rarely occurs, but if it does occur it occurs from the age of adolescence to mid-30s. Some symptoms are clumsiness, mood swings, muscle weakness, tremors, muscle twitching, inaudible dialog or speech, failure to coordinate voluntary muscles, and individuals have problems walking, running, and doing similar activities. Eventually individuals will need wheel chairs or braces to help them move around. They may experience memory loss, show behavioral changes, show short attention span, and have personality changes.
