Baby with suspected Progeria born in Dhaka

If you have seen the classic Brad Pitt movie Curious Case of Benjamin Button then you probably know about the rare premature ageing condition Progeria.

On May 22, a baby showing symptoms of Progeria was born at Dhaka’s Bangladesh Medical College Hospital in Dhanmondi.

The baby was born prematurely at only 26 weeks of pregnancy, Professor Nurul Huq Head of Pediatrics Department of Bangladesh Medical College Hospital told The Daily Star.

The doctors are suspecting the condition to be Progeria but the diagnosis is not complete yet, he said.

The baby now 13 days old weighs 960 grammes gaining a mere 160 grammes since birth, whereas weight below 2.5 kilograms is considered low birth weight.

Earlier, in 2010 and 2016, two other boys named Tuhin and Bayezid respectively, were said to have been the first two progeria patients in Bangladesh on record.

The word Progeria comes from the Greek progeros meaning prematurely old. It is a rare genetic condition that accelerates ageing in children and occurs in one per 8 million live births.

There is no known cure for progeria, and only a few people around the world lived up to 13 years of age with this condition.