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Abu Dhabi: Two Emirati sisters from Abu Dhabi have become the first to receive gene therapy in the UAE, it was announced in the capital today.
The therapy was conducted with the aim of saving the vision of Alia, 13, and Hessa, 11, who suffered from retinal damage due to a defective gene.
The vision-saving surgery was performed at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in January (2020), and doctors said at a press conference that they are hopeful it will slowly improve the the vision of both patients.
“The prospect of slowly losing one’s vision from an untreatable condition is traumatic for both children and their parents. This genetic therapy means we can now replace the faulty gene in the eye, saving and even improving the vision of an individual who would otherwise have eventual irreversible blindness,” said Dr Arif Khan, paediatric ophthalmologist and ocular geneticist at the hospital.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is only one of 10 centres worldwide, and the only one in the region, that is qualified to offer this procedure – the first gene therapy that was approved by the Federal Drug Administration in the United States, doctors said. But its availability opens the doors for more gene therapies to be offered to treat conditions as varied as diabetes and spinal muscular atrophy, they added.
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The post UAE’s first gene therapy improves eyesight of two Emirati sisters appeared first on The Wealth Land.
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