Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month is observed each August to raise awareness of the condition caused by the deficiency of a motor neuron protein called SMN and other rare forms of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) that stem from chromosome mutations. SMA is a hereditary neurological illness that inhibits voluntary muscle action, leading to gradual muscular weakness and atrophy. Efforts to mark Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month are underway to increase awareness of this rare genetic disease and raise funds to battle it. The public is largely unfamiliar with SMA, and even physicians and other healthcare providers have a limited understanding of it.