Bea, a five­-year-old girl, was born with a severe illness which means she has to be kept away from other children of her age, because her body is so weak that she would be unable to fight off a common cold.

Bea was diagnosed (诊断) with this disease when she was five months old. Since then, the hospital has become her second home, medicines for food, and all kinds of treatments her friends. Bea received a very special treatment when she was four years old, which would allow her to be like a normal child if successful. After that, she spent two weeks in ICU before living for four months on a separate ward(病房). Bea was allowed home in February but still needed a special tube in her nose to send in medicine every two days.

Her parents clean the house from top to bottom every two days and hoover (用吸尘器清扫) each morning to make sure Bea is free from any possible bacteria. Anna, Bea’s mother, said, “She is weak but so strong. We’ve never seen any child stronger than her. It seems as if nothing in the world could beat her. We really hope to send her to school next year.” She used to drive on the local playground, but Bea was only allowed to watch sitting in the car. “It was heartbreaking to see Bea staring at the running and laughing children there. She never stopped fighting the disease. I know she’s dying for such a normal life.”

Hearing of Bea’s story, the Make­A­Wish Foundation has paid for a play park to be built in her back garden.“Bea is very brave and she has encouraged many children like her, ” said the chairman of the foundation.

Ayla Bashir, a 16-month-old girl from Ottowa, Canada, is healthy after doctors used a new method to treat her before she was born. Her mother, Sobia Qureshi, recently told The Associated Press her daughter is now an active, happy girl who is growing normally. And her parents previously lost two daughters, Zara, 2.5, and Sara, 8 months, to the condition.

Ayla has a rare genetic disease called Pompe, which causes the body to fail to make some or all of an important enzyme (酶). But a new case study describes the new treatment method that seems to be working for Ayla.

Dr. Karen Fung-Kee-Fung, a medicine specialist who works with fetuses (胎儿), gave Ayla the treatment which was developed by Dr. Tippi MacKenzie, co-director of the Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

MacKenzie shared her research with Fung-Kee-Fung. “We were all motivated to make this happen for this family,” MacKenzie said.

Ayla received six treatments, starting at about 24 weeks of fetal (胎儿的) development. And Dr. Pranesh Chakraborty has cared for Ayla’s family for years. He told the AP that what made the treatment highly effective was completing it early, while the fetus was still developing.

Pompe affects fewer than 1 in 100，000 newborns. It is caused by changes in a gene that makes an enzyme that breaks down glycogen, or stored sugar, in cells. When that enzyme is reduced or removed, glycogen (肝糖元) builds up dangerously throughout the body.

Babies with Pompe disease have trouble feeding and experience muscle weakness. They often have very enlarged hearts. When left untreated, most babies die from heart or breathing problems during the first year of life. In addition to the girls who died, Ayla’s parents have a 13-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. Neither of those children were affected by the disorder.

For now, doctors are waiting to see whether the treatment can become a generally accepted form of treatment. Dr. Christina Lam, a biochemical genetics specialist at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, said it will take some time to clearly demonstrate whether the results of the new treatment are better for patients.

Ayla receives drugs for her immune system and weekly enzyme treatments that take five to six hours. Unless a new method is found, Ayla is likely to continue the treatments throughout her life.