Coimbatore: One-year-old Zuha Zainab, who could only bend her right elbow until a few days ago, is now able to slowly move her shoulders. The child was administered a life-saving medicine, worth crores of rupees, for free of cost after she emerged as a winner in a lucky draw.
Zuha, who is suffering from the rare disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), was administered one of the costliest medicines, Zolgensma, at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi on June 26.
The child received the medicine free of cost after she won the lucky draw conducted by the pharmaceutical company for the SMA patients. She has been undergoing physiotherapy for three days.
Her condition is reportedly improving as physiotherapy too has commenced.
The doctors at the Delhi hospital said it would take one year to be completely cured of the disease. Till then, the child has to undergo physiotherapy 3-4 times daily.
Zuha is the daughter of Abdullah and Ayisha Firdous, natives of Podanur in Coimbatore. They will return to Podanur on July 23.
Zuha was diagnosed with the SMA Type-1 disease last year. Zolgensma injection is the only cure for the rare illness that causes muscles to weaken.
Zolgensma is the brand name of drug Onasemnogene abeparvovec. This gene therapy medication, which is used to treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has to be injected once into a vein. The medicine works by providing a new copy of the gene that makes the human SMN protein.
