An extremely rare disease afflicts Navajo children at an unusually high rate.
One in every 2,500 Navajo children are diagnosed with severe combined immune deficiency, or SCID.
In comparison, 1 in 100,000 children in the general population have the disease, which renders a child's immune system virtually useless.
Lorria Trujillo's daughter was 6 months old when she died of SCID-related conditions.
Her 9-year-old daughter also suffers from the disease.
The disease is inherited. Researchers found the same gene mutation in every Navajo and Apache child with SCID.
Get the Story:Rare disease forces Navajo parents to cope as a cure is sought (AP 12/16) $rl SCID Homepage - http://www.scid.net
