What is the birthdate of this prominent sufferer of severe combined immunodeficiency, referred to as the bubble boy, famous for living in a sterile environment?
Severe combined immunodeficiency Severe combined immunodeficiency, SCID, also known as alymphocytosis, Glanzmann–Riniker syndrome, severe mixed immunodeficiency syndrome, and thymic alymphoplasia, is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the disturbed development of functional T cells and B cells caused by numerous genetic mutations that result in heterogeneous clinical presentations. SCID involves defective antibody response due to either direct involvement with B lymphocytes or through improper B lymphocyte activation due to non-functional T-helper cells. Consequently, both "arms" (B cells and T cells) of the adaptive immune system are impaired due to a defect in one of several possible genes. SCID is the most severe form of primary immunodeficiencies, and there are now at least nine different known genes in which mutations lead to a form of SCID. It is also known as the bubble boy disease and bubble baby disease because its victims are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases and some of them, such as David Vetter, have become famous for living in a sterile environment. SCID is the result of an immune system so highly compromised that it is considered almost absent.
Anthony S. Fauci Anthony Stephen "Tony" Fauci ( ) (born December 24, 1940) is an American immunologist who has made substantial contributions to HIV/AIDS research and other immunodeficiencies, both as a scientist and as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).