Sammy Basso was the youngest old man in the world. This Italian was 28 years old when he died on October 5, 2024, from progeria, a disease he had suffered from since birth. But his body seemed to be a hundred years older. How is this possible? Presentation of this pathology which causes people to die of old age while still in their youth.
Progeria, or Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome, is a disease caused by a mutation in a gene located on chromosome number 1. However, it is not hereditary, and affects both girls and boys. It is sometimes nicknamed “Benjamin Button syndrome”, but unlike the character played in the cinema by Brad Pitt, sufferers do not get younger over the years. They just age in accelerated fashion. Their life expectancy ranges between 13 and 16 years.
From the age of 1 or 2, affected children develop characteristics linked to the 3rd or 4th age: alopecia (baldness), thin and wrinkled skin, arterial sclerosis, pain in the joints or even cardiovascular disorders. They also have a characteristic facial morphology with small jaws, a pinched nose and a high-pitched voice. According to the “Swiss Medical Review”, the height of patients does not exceed 110 cm and a weight of 15 kg. On the other hand, their cognitive abilities remain intact.
Very. This pathology is extremely rare since it affects 1 in 4 to 8 million births. It is estimated that there are around twenty cases in Europe (including Sammy Basso) and 100 to 200 in total worldwide.
Like Sammy Basso, some progeria sufferers are now celebrities on social networks. Originally from Annemasse (neighboring France), Rania, who died in 2020 at the age of 16, was followed by thousands of people on her YouTube channel. As for Adalia Rose Williams, a Texan teenager, she recounted her daily life on her Facebook account (12 million subscribers) and her YouTube channel (2.6 million). She died in 2022, at age 15.
