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Researchers Say They Can Now Cure "Bubble Baby" Disease

BOSTON (CBS) - Days after bringing home her newborn twin daughter, Alysia Vaccaro could sense Evangelina wasn't as healthy as her sister.

"I had a baby to compare her to and I just knew something was wrong with her," explains Alysia.

Her mother's intuition - was right. Testing revealed Evangelina was born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, also called "SCID" or "bubble baby" disease. It's a genetic disorder that leaves the body without an immune system, making infants extremely vulnerable to illness. Even the common cold can be deadly.

"We wore masks," says Alysia, "We had hand sanitizer. We had raw hands from cleaning so much."

The Vaccaros turned to Dr. Donald Kohn and a clinical trial at UCLA as a last hope. "It's gone from a 'one day, maybe' to a real clinical reality," says Dr. Kohn.

That reality, says Dr. Kohn says, is an actual cure for the disease. His treatment takes bone marrow from the patient to gather stem cells. A cloned gene is then added to correct what was missing at birth.

"Those stem cells are given back to the patient where they can go back to the bone marrow and make the blood cells for the rest of the patient's life," explains Dr. Kohn.

So far, the treatment has restored the immune systems of all 23 patients in the most recent clinical trials. That includes Evangelina.

"It is a cure," says Alysia. "I know it's a cure. We're living the cure."

Now three years old doctors say she's in perfect health.

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