Young students raise awareness for rare genetic disorders


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SALT LAKE CITY — Students at Ensign Elementary School wore jeans Wednesday in the name of genes.

Just like Feb. 29 is a rare day, so are many genetic diseases in the United States.

About 30 million Americans will have a rare disease at some point in their life. The problem is diagnosing these rare diseases often takes too long.

"People who have had a condition all their lives, it might take them 20 years to get accurately diagnosed with that condition," Cristina Might said.

By the time her son turned 2 years old, Might said she had spent more than $100,000 in medical bills just for genetic testing.

All that testing could be replaced by one blood test with quicker results. The school hopes that by wearing jeans, the community will see the need for advance in human genetics and closer access for these tests.

A facility in Utah could speed up finding a cause and a cure for rare genetic disease right here in out home state.

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