3 siblings in Gujarat become the 7th case in the world to have ‘rare intellectual disability’

"We were told about a genetic problem after our first child, but we did not know that each child would turn out this way", said the mother

By: News Desk |
April 27, 2017 10:39 am

A 12-year-old girl from Gujarat and her two siblings are suffering from a rare mental disorder due to which they cannot tell if they are hungry or need water, they are unable to go to the toilet on their own. Their parents have to keep checking them, in case they need anything.

In a report published in The Indian Express, Mittal Chavda and her two younger siblings Prarthana (10 years) and Bhavik (28 months) were born with what is called as type-42 mental retardation by doctors. This mental disorder is very rare and there’s is the seventh case recorded in the world

Dr Frenny Sheth, head of Cytogenetics department at the Institute of Human Genetics (IHG), Ahmedabad said, “There could be similar cases in the country but they have not been registered or recorded yet.”

Couple Haresh and Kanchan Chavda and their three children are from Hanumanpura village in Botad district. Kanchan said that her children are malnourished and cannot talk. She told that when she was expecting her first child doctors informed her about the genetic problem but she never thought that it would continue with each child, “We were told about a genetic problem after our first child, but we did not know that each child would turn out this way”.

The scientists at IHG are studying this case and will soon publish a detailed study will soon be published in PubMed, which is a database for biomedical literature. This particular case might also make it to the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in May.