May is Prader-Willi Syndrome awareness month and we would like to help spread its awareness. Prader-Willi Syndrome or PWS is an uncommon genetic disorder that can be present since birth. The common symptom is overeating that do not stop even when the person is already full; other symptoms include muscle weakness and behavioral problems. This rare disease and its symptoms are currently observed to be shown by 40 people in Uruguay.
The rare chronic disease is very hard to fight as only little information is known on how to treat and support the patients and their families. This was the case for Maria Ines Fonseca whose daughter was diagnosed with the Prader-Willi Syndrome recently after birth.
Doctors say that the disease has different symptoms that can be observed the same way or same intensity for each case of the Prader-Willi Syndrome. To add with muscle weakness and other disabilities, an insatiable appetite which leads to obesity can be observed on all cases.
The rare disease which is not hereditary records only one case per 15,000 births. It is first observed in 1956 by Swiss Doctors Andrea Prader, Alexis Labhart and Heinrich Willi where the disease got its name. The doctors observed that nine patients are showing the same symptoms of obesity, short stature, muscle weakness, and other physical and intellectual disabilities.
