A simple blood test can determine if you are a carrier of Tay Sachs Disease. Tays Sachs Disease is an inherited incurable disease of the central nervous system. Its symptoms first appear when a baby is about 6 months old. The baby stops smiling and developing through the normal developmental stages. Blindness and paralysis follow within the next four years resulting in the child's death by the age of five years.
Most babies die within the first two years.
Tays Sachs Disease is an autosomal recessive disease that is the result of chance inheritance. Tay Sachs disease is not infectious and therefore cannot be caught. It is only if both partners are carriers of the faulty gene for Tay Sachs Disease that a child can be born with the condition. A blood test can determine whether or not a person is a carrier and if a couple is 'at risk' of having a child with Tay Sachs Disease.