Download or read book Chronic Disease and Disability in Childhood written by Joav Merrick and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking back on history and especially medical history, children born with significant congenital anomalies, genetic and metabolic diseases or disabilities perished at an early age, and very few survived into adolescence and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis and many other diseases were fatal. Today with advances in medical knowledge and technology, many of these patients now live a longer life and sometimes even close to the average life expectancy for the country. In this way, childhood diseases have become lifelong diseas.