Rare insomnia kills two generations of Australian families

Australian sisters Lachlan and Hayley Webb have grandmother, mother, aunt and he all died of insomnia for days or months.

According to International Business Times, Hayley's grandmother, 30, news channel reporter Channel Nine News and her brother Lachlan, 28, died when they were teenagers. Her grandmother suffers from hereditary insomnia (Fatal Familial Insomnia - FFI), a rare genetic disease that makes people unable to sleep deeply, leading to mental and physical exhaustion.

Sisters from Queensland, Australia, lost their mother because of this incurable disease. Their mother died at the age of 61. The disease also claimed their aunt's life at 42 and her uncle at the age of 20.

With the disease in the gene, both are participating in pioneering research at the University of California, USA, to find out the cause of the disease. The study is headed by scientists Eric Minikel and Sonia Vallabah.

The sisters Hayley and Lachlan Webb have fatal insomnia syndrome.(Photo: ABC News).

Hayley shared that her family became interested in a rare disease when their grandmother became the first person to be diagnosed with FFI.

"I remember starting to pay attention to the illness from my childhood and my family suffered a curse. My grandmother started to fall ill and died. She became blind, showing signs of confusion, becoming ill. When she was diagnosed with FFI, it was the first time my family knew of the existence of the disease, " recalled Hayley.

"I remember moving to a new job in the Sunshine Coast and my mother said," I hope you have a great day, I'm very proud of you. "A week later, I returned home, calling me Jillian and mistaking I am with the maid , " Hayley said of his mother.

This extremely rare brain syndrome is caused by a mutation in PrPC protein . Although most genetic cases from parents to children, the disease can also develop in people with non-genetic mutations, called discrete insomnia insomnia (Sporadic Fatal Insomnia - SFI).

"Your body doesn't allow you to rejuvenate. It's like having to stay awake for the last 6 months , " Hayley said.

The first case of FFI was recorded in 1765 when an Italian man died in Venice because of the syndrome. Mutant proteins that cause FFI syndrome are detected in 40 families around the world and 100 people are affected. If a parent has a mutant gene, the likelihood of their child inheriting this gene and developing the disease is 50%. After revealing a series of symptoms of FFI, the patient only lived an average of 18 months.