Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD)
PCD is a rare, inherited disease. Currently, because of the rareness of this disease, there are no available statistics on the number of people suffering from PCD.
What is Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia?
In PCD, the tiny hairs called cilia that vibrate to help clean airways do not vibrate correctly. This results in slow movement of mucus and blockage of breathing passages leading to infection of the lungs, nose, ears and throat.
Causes
This is a disease that a person is born with; it is NOT contagious.
Symptoms
Having reoccurring, or unending cold symptoms. Babies may have reoccurring lung, chest, or ear infections.
Treatments
There is no cure for this disease. However, it is important to treat this disease to lessen the chance of irreversible lung damage. Sometimes it is necessary to have tubes put in the ears and to have the tonsils removed.