The disease that struck down the "boy in the bubble", David Vetter, can now be cured in most cases with a bone marrow transplant given within 14 weeks of a child's birth. Duke University researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine that 21 of the 22 babies given the transplant survived the otherwise fatal immune disorder, severe combined immune deficiency (SCID). The marrow from a family member allowed them to build healthy immune systems before opportunistic infections took hold. David Vetter from Texas lived in a plastic, germ-free bubble for 12 years before he died in 1984.