Hacker News Reader

Imagine having huntingtons, a death sentence hanging over your life, over your family and then suddenly- its cured, the door swings open, and a life you never expected to have lies ahead. Go team humanity!

View on HN

It's not exactly cured: "Could slow progress". But of course there is a huge difference between having chances to die 10 years after onset of disease and 30 years! Especially since it appears to start in later life

My family tends to live 25-30 years after onset of symptoms because we have fewer CAG repeats than most HD families. So this may be effectively the same as a cure for us.

The don’t want to dismiss the difference though.

To an extent this has happened with Cystic Fibrosis and HIV+ patients. Many have trouble dealing with a future they hadn't prepared for and thought wasn't going to happen.

Living longer is not automatically some magical gift.

I like to think that we're in a golden era where most of these hideous diseases are eradicated or at least made manageable in the next 25 years, with the problem virtually solved in 100 years. Too late for me, but what a world it will be then!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com