NATIONAL TRISOMY AWARENESS MONTH
Every March, the National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHD) and other organizations come together to bring awareness through National Trisomy Awareness Month. The observance supports those with Trisomy conditions. While most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes, some have a condition that causes extra partial or full chromosomes in their cells. Those extra chromosomes can cause a range of health problems, learning difficulties as well as delays in physical development.
You may not have ever heard of Trisomy, but you’ve probably heard of Down Syndrome, right? Well, Down Syndrome is essentially a form of Trisomy. Here’s a brief summary of the different types of Trisomy.
1. Trisomy 21: Down Syndrome. About 1 in 700 babies born in the United States are born with Down Syndrome, and 6,000 babies total are born with it every year. Down Syndrome occurs when an individual has an extra copy of chromosome 21.
2. Trisomy 18: Edwards Syndrome. This occurs in about 1 in 5,000 live-born infants in the United States, but many fetuses with Edwards Syndrome do not survive to term. Those that survive past their first year usually have severe intellectual disabilities.
3. Trisomy 13: Patau Syndrome. Trisomy 13 occurs the least of all 3 types; about 1 in 16,000 newborns have it. Most infants with Trisomy 13 die in their first few weeks of life.
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalTrisomyAwarenessMonth
For more information on National Trisomy Awareness Month, visit nichd.nih.gov. Use #NationalTrisomyAwarenessMonth to post on social media. Reach out to a family you know who has a child living with a form of Trisomy to spend a little time with them and learn more about what it’s like. Trisomy 21 (or Down Syndrome) kids are known to be some of the kindest, happiest, most joyful people in the world. Another way to observe National Trisomy Awareness Month is to teach others about Trisomy, and maybe even donate to the cause. If you want to donate money to the research of Trisomy, click here.
NATIONAL TRISOMY AWARENESS MONTH HISTORY
In our research, we were unable to find the creator of National Trisomy Awareness Month.
