A friend of the Huntington’s community receives award for HD article in influential Brazilian magazine

Brazilian journalist Mônica Manir, holder of a doctorate in bioethics and a long-time friend of the Huntington’s disease community, received the Prêmio Synapsis (Synapsis Prize) for her in-depth December 2017 article on the disorder in the prestigious Brazilian magazine Piauí.

Titled “Dançando no escuro” (“Dancing in the Dark”), the article provides a detailed portrait of HD, focusing on families in Brazil and other countries affected by the condition, which causes involuntary movements, cognitive decline, and psychiatric problems. Piauí is on the level of The New Yorker magazine.

The Prêmio Synapsis is sponsored by the Brazilian Federation of Hospitals and awarded annually for the best journalistic reports on health issues in the categories of print publications, TV, online, and radio.

For her article, Manir did almost five months of reporting, traveling to the interior to visit a town with a large nucleus of affected families and also to the Vatican in May 2017 to witness Pope Francis’ special audience with the global HD community.

Upon receiving the Prêmio Synapsis in Brasília on November 27, Manir recalled the pope’s declaration that HD should be “hidden no more!”

Mônica Manir receiving the Prêmio Synapsis (photo by Federação Brasileira de Hospitais)

Manir received her degree in journalism at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), one of Brazil’s leading universities, in 1990. She worked as both a reporter and editor for the Sunday news and cultural section of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

In 2013, she reported for the paper on the sixth World Congress on Huntington’s Disease, held in Rio de Janeiro. She also set up a talk by me on HD and bioethics in São Paulo at the Centro Universitário São Camilo’s graduate program in bioethics, where she received both her Master’s and Ph.D.

She is also doing a post-doctoral study at the USP’s Instituto Oscar Freire on the dilemmas of predictive testing for people at risk for HD.

On December 5, Manir granted the following interview via e-mail.

GV: What led you to study journalism?

MM: I was always a very curious person. I wanted to understand the “why” of everything. I always pestered my parents with questions. I also loved reading. When I was 14, my sister started studying literature at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas [in São Paulo state] and became a member of the Círculo do Livro [a bi-weekly book club]. I couldn’t wait to “inherit” from her all of those books that arrived at our house. I also loved writing and was praised for my school reports. In middle school, I discovered that the history taught in the schools had a political bias. I felt the wool had been pulled over our eyes with all of the language that permeated the school texts and that often hid the facts. I decided that, by becoming a journalist, I could try to get as close as I could to the truth to help people become more critical and aware. I wanted to be where things were happening and consider all the angles. To do that, I needed to do deeper reporting. That’s why I always preferred working for media that allowed me to do in-depth reporting.

GV: What inspired you to write an article for Piauí about Huntington’s?

MM: Although I already knew about the disease because of the article I did for O Estado de S. Paulo in 2013, I was inspired to do the piece for Piauí by the audience with the pope at the Vatican. I thought it was a theme appropriate for returning to the subject, now in a more profound way, because I would come into contact with the affected, the families, and the health professionals from different parts of the world.

GV: What did it mean for you to receive the Prêmio Synapsis for your article “Dancing in the Dark”? Why is the prize called “Synapsis”?

MM: It meant for me a big investment in an in-depth article. Just to report it took almost five months, including my trip to the Vatican and to Ervália, a small town with a large enclave of people with the disease in the state of Minas Gerais, and also the reading of articles and books, and long interviews with the affected, family members, specialists, artists. Then came the writing up of all that enormous amount of information, the organization of the text, and the fact-checking, and then the final version, which took up seven pages in the magazine. According to the sponsors, the name of the prize is intended to recognize the brilliant ideas regarding the improvement of Brazil’s health system. The term “synapsis” has to do with “link,” “connection.”

GV: What did you say as you accepted the prize?

MM: I thanked the sponsors for their initiative in stimulating discussion about the Brazilian health system, which is essential in a country with such social inequality in all areas. I also thanked Piauí magazine for having invested in a theme still little known, and for having sent me to the Vatican and Ervália to cover different angles of the subject. But I especially thanked the HD-affected, their relatives, and the health professionals, all of whom deal with prejudice, the difficulties of being diagnosed, and the hitches that have occurred in the search for treatments, all of this unfortunately also very common in other rare diseases. Lastly, I remembered the theme of the audience with Pope Francis: “Hidden no more!”

GV: After the ceremony at which you received your trophy, many people greeted you and said that they had not heard of HD but would now take an interest in it. What explains this reaction?

MM: I think the fact that a prestigious magazine like Piauí took interest in the subject is already a reason for reading the article. Another point is that this disease can be present in a family or friends without anybody knowing about it. Or, even if people know about it, they might lack detailed information. So, there’s curiosity about learning more about HD. One couple present at the ceremony said that they knew about the disease because a relative had symptoms. They called it “Huntington’s chorea,” as it is still sometimes known in Brazil, and praised the fact that the magazine had addressed the subject.

GV: It’s been a year since the publication of “Dancing in the Darkness.” Beyond your prize, what has been the article’s impact in Brazil?

MM: When it was published, it drew praise from various quarters, from apartment doormen to Brazilian celebrities, besides the subjects themselves.

GV: What was it like to cover the affected families in Rome in May 2017?

MM: It was a very rich experience! I understood much better the anguish of the families, the factors that accentuated or eased that anguish, and the determination to diminish the silence on the matter. Everybody was very kind to me, answering patiently my endless questions!

GV: What led you to study bioethics?

MM: I think bioethics combines perfectly with journalism in the sense that the guiding concept is “it depends.” Central questions of human existence can’t be viewed just from one angle. It’s necessary to turn the prism and observe the effects that has on the light. It’s necessary to understand the context of a matter, people’s wishes, the internal and external pressures, and, from that point, try to register things with sensitivity. Bioethics showed – and continues to show – me the profound dilemmas of life and death that are still far from being answered with a single response. 

GV: What has most impacted you regarding Huntington’s?

MM: Huntington’s is a hereditary disease that leaves families on hold. Questions hang over them: “Do I carry the gene? Does my child? And my mother? And my nephew?” Despite the existence of a predictive test, very few undergo testing to learn their status before the actual onset of symptoms – which is completely understandable, because there is still no cure. At the same time, there are cutting-edge research projects that could block the genetic trigger and, as a result, help to treat and/or cure this and other diseases.

GV: What message would you like to transmit to the Huntington’s community in Brazil? And beyond?

MM: I would like to say that I understand very well all of the suffering encompassing the disease and how, sometimes, people feel like hiding it in the closet. But I think the prize confirms the main point of the papal audience: we must speak about Huntington’s. Shedding light on things hurts. However, it helps to make people aware of alternatives and of the partners to be found on this journey. The disease does not affect my family, but my empathy – and that of so many other individuals – is not a question of blood, but of soul. I’m with you!

This Thanksgiving, appreciating stable health and new plans for Huntington’s disease advocacy

This Thanksgiving, I am especially grateful for good health – and all that it enables me to enjoy.

At my annual neurology checkup on October 31, the doctor told me that I remain asymptomatic for Huntington’s disease. My more extensive annual Enroll-HD examination earlier in the year also showed no symptoms. 

I tested positive for the HD gene in 1999. Next month, I turn 59. At that age, my mother had already been diagnosed and was rapidly losing the ability to walk, talk, and care for herself. She died in 2006 at the age of 68 after a long struggle.

I never imagined that at this point I could still pursue my passion for writing, teach at the university, and support my family.

As I frequently tell students, colleagues, and my family, “health is first.” Without it, achieving goals and handling responsibilities can become very difficult, if not impossible.

Studying the history of the HD cause

I am putting the final touches on a book in my field of Brazilian history, scheduled to be published next June, From Revolution to Power in Brazil: How Radical Leftists Embraced Capitalism and Struggled with Power. I began the research more than two decades ago, not long after learning of my mother’s HD diagnosis. Seeing the project come to fruition is thrilling and profoundly fulfilling.

With the Brazil project complete, I will carry out my long-gestating plan to shift my main scholarly focus to the history of science, technology, and medicine. Last month I proposed a new, multi-year research project, titled “Racing Against the Genetic Clock: A Social, Scientific, and Personal History of the Huntington’s Disease Movement.”

I aim to study how key facets of the movement intertwined with major developments in the biotechnological and medical revolutions of the past 200 years. I believe that the HD cause can serve as a guidepost for other disease communities and inform key bioethical questions related to them.

I also want to help the HD community reflect on its path through history. 

More than ever, my scholarly work and HD advocacy will meld. (Click here to read more.)

Seeing our daughter enter college

On a personal level, good health allowed me to join my wife Regina last August in helping our HD-free daughter Bianca set up for her first semester at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is studying in its College of Arts and Sciences.

I had always feared that HD would prevent me from experiencing this special moment – just as HD had stopped my mother from interacting with Bianca as a baby and young child.

I am more determined than ever to see Bianca graduate from college and find her way in life. I’m hoping that GENERATION HD1, the historic Roche Phase 3 clinical trial of a gene-silencing HD drug, will result in an effective treatment not only for patients, but as a preventive measure for presymptomatic gene carriers like me. Roche hopes to enroll the first volunteers starting in early 2019.

Looking ahead, I hope to retire on my own timeline – not because of HD.

Regina, Bianca, and Kenneth Serbin (aka Gene Veritas) during Penn Family Weekend, October 21, 2018 (family photo)

The preciousness of life

I’ve been extremely fortunate to reach this point without HD symptoms—or other significant health problems. Many HD brothers and sisters of my generation are struggling with symptoms. 

Like so many in HD families and other difficult situations, I’ve learned to value each moment of life.

Others face different health issues. At this time last year, I lost two wonderful friends about my age, generous supporters of the HD cause, taken quickly and unexpectedly by other conditions. I’ve missed them dearly, and think about them daily as a reminder of the preciousness of life.

Tomorrow, I want to enjoy Thanksgiving.

God and nature willing, I’ll awake the next day ready to love my family, continue the fight to defeat HD, and dream of a day when a cure frees me to assist people less fortunate.

Happy Thanksgiving! And the best of health for you and yours.

Fighting – and writing – to stay healthy: ten years of 'At Risk for Huntington’s Disease'

Ten years ago today, I launched this blog to explore the depths of living at risk for Huntington’s disease and to unburden myself of the fear of its inevitable symptoms.

Frankly, I did not expect to still be writing at 55.

At that age, my mother had developed chorea (the involuntary movements associated with HD) and was experiencing serious emotional and cognitive symptoms that would soon prevent her from speaking and caring for herself. This year marks the sad 20^th anniversary of her official diagnosis. She died of HD in February 2006 at the age of 68.

I tested positive for the HD genetic mutation in 1999.

I strongly believe that my work on this blog – research, reflection, writing, advocacy, and networking – has helped me delay my own HD onset.

I cannot scientifically prove this, but evidence strongly suggests that mental stimuli and other forms of enrichment can positively affect the course of this disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Researchers have told me privately that they believe my mental activity has helped keep me stable. “Keep doing what you’re doing,” they say.

Gene Veritas with his tenth anniversary blog posting (photo by Gene Veritas)

Launching the blog

Life can be an emotional roller coaster. HD families ride the tallest and most twisted one, with HD gene carriers like me facing a terrifying descent into symptoms.

Starting in 2001, I wrote and edited Conquest, the tri-annual newsletter of the San Diego Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. However, while revealing the stories of many HD-affected individuals and their families in Conquest, I never wrote about my own family’s plight.

I started At Risk at the urging of Norman Oder, a fellow Yale University graduate and colleague at the Yale Daily News.

As a young journalist in the 1980s, Norman by chance wrote an article about a New York area HD family. After we reconnected years later, he edited some of my Conquest articles. Coincidentally one told the story of that same family, part of which had moved to California.

In the early 2000s Norman and I brainstormed about how to increase media coverage of HD, including my own story, as a way to strengthen the cause and attract potential donors.

With that goal in mind, I initiated the blog to address the many complex issues faced by presymptomatic mutation carriers like me as well as untested at-risk individuals.

I didn’t realize at the time how much it would help me sort out my thoughts, engage with others in the HD community, and nudge HD activism. In February 2011, I examined this blog as an advocacy tool during my keynote of the Sixth Annual HD Therapeutics Conference, sponsored by the CHDI Foundation, Inc. In June 2011 I was named HDSA’s Person of the Year, an honor I never could have achieved without this forum. “I know, too, that this award is not just for me,” I wrote, “but for everybody affected by HD: the at-risk, the gene-positive, the symptomatic, the families, and the unsung heroes of America, the caregivers.”

From the start, Norman has applied his editing skills to virtually every article, almost always sending back revisions within a few hours. He has also suggested a number of topics and pushed me toward rigor when it’s tempting to just hope.

Norman is my “HD alter ego,” and a great friend.

(Later in 2005, Norman began his own long-running blog, a daily account of Brooklyn’s most controversial real-estate project, now called Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report.)

A stalwart supporter of my activism, my wife Regina has reflected with me on the content of numerous articles. Our daughter Bianca has witnessed me writing and posting articles. Now a teenager, she has a record she can consult of her grandmother’s demise and her father’s writing and coping strategies.

Explicitly and implicitly, Regina and Bianca permeate the pages of this blog. More than anything else, their presence and love motivate me to fight HD and to improve as a husband, father, and human being.

Gene Veritas (left, aka Kenneth Serbin), Norman Oder, and Regina Serbin (photo by Bianca Serbin)

Bringing hope

In that first year (2005), I wrote 17 articles. However, over the next three years I could only write 18 articles. I was distraught over the death of my mother from HD. I even acted out HD symptoms.

During those first four years, I focused primarily on my family’s struggles to care for my mother and how living with the gene affected my feelings and life.

With the help of my psychotherapist and a more effective set of medications for depression and anxiety, I started to turn the corner in late 2007.

In late 2007 I also wrote my first blog article about the potential of stem cell research for finding HD treatments. Along with other southern California advocates, I set up the very first presentations about Huntington’s disease before the state’s stem cell agency.

From that point on, the hope for treatments buoyed me emotionally and became a frequent theme of At Risk for Huntington’s Disease.

Expanding the research updates that I wrote for Conquest, I started doing on-the-scene reporting and in-depth interviews with researchers. In April 2008, I visited Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in nearby Carlsbad, CA, to produce an article on the company’s ambitious efforts to stop HD very close to its genetic roots.

This year Isis will conduct the long-awaited Phase I clinical trial to test its potential gene-silencing drug.

Broad coverage

The blog expanded to cover many of the difficult issues impinging on the HD community, including abortion; advocacy for a congressional bill to update the government’s disability criteria for HD;  the difficult discussions young at-risk people face during dating; and the challenges of finding adequate nursing home care for HD patients.

“I really absolutely admire your bravery in exposing this disease in a realistic and unapologetic way,” wrote Stella, another HD blogger, in a comment on one of my articles. Such comments help keep me going.

Writing the blog helped me think through the process of going public about my HD status after nearly 15 years of advocating anonymously and seven years of blogging under the pseudonym “Gene Veritas,” which I maintain as a symbol of our community’s fight for the cure.

Now, as I meld my HD advocacy with the career of Kenneth P. Serbin the professional historian, I have come to view the blog as a primary historical document of the “new and harrowing human experience of living in the gray zone between a genetic test result and onset of a disease.”

An emotional vent

Above all, the blog is an emotional vent.

With you, my readers, I can share my feelings about facing a terrible, currently untreatable disease, build forces to defeat the profound stigma surrounding HD, and bolster advocacy to improve care and seek the cure.

Through At Risk for Huntington’s Disease – and the HD community I have reached on Facebook – I have gained many new brothers and sisters determined to survive HD and passionate about the noble aim of bettering humanity by solving a major medical and scientific puzzle.

Often, producing articles for the blog envelops me for hours and sometimes days as I research, travel, photograph, shoot video, write, revise, and post, and then engage with readers via e-mail and social media.

Sometimes I go to bed too late – not good for someone at risk for a disease that disturbs the body’s natural rhythms.

As I prepare to post an article, I experience a torrent of emotion, followed by a deep sense of relief.

The memories of twenty years of dealing with HD come flooding back, but in the end I have hope.

Awaiting effective treatments

This article is posting number 197 in At Risk for Huntington’s Disease.

I am grateful that very soon I will be able to post number 200.

Tonight I will raise a glass to the blog.

I know it’s still a long shot because of the inevitability of HD symptoms, but I want to remain healthy long enough to write the article celebrating the discovery of a treatment so effective that I can stop worrying about HD and retire the blog.