Five-year-olds can be goofy. That was my first thought several years ago when my son stumbled and fell to the ground.

But when he failed to get up and told us that his legs hurt, my husband and I grew worried. By the time we got him to a doctor, his mystery sickness had progressed. He couldn’t walk down the hall to the exam room without bracing himself against the wall.

It’s difficult to describe the sheer terror I felt in that moment. His body was seizing up, but he remained aware of his surroundings. Worst of all, there was nothing I could do to fix it.

Eventually we learned that we were among the thousands of American families affected each year by Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS -- a rare, debilitating neuromuscular condition that can strike anyone at a moment’s notice.

Despite GBS’s life-altering impact, treatment options today are limited, outdated, and often inadequate. Developing more effective therapies for this terrible disease should be an urgent public health priority.

Just diagnosing GBS is a challenge. An initial battery of tests on our son revealed nothing. His paralysis progressed rapidly -- within hours he could not stand or lift his arms above his waist. A spinal tap 24 hours after the onset of symptoms showed elevated protein levels. At that point, our doctor knew it was GBS.

GBS doesn’t discriminate. Everyone from young children to the elderly can fall victim. GBS typically strikes without warning and moves at lightning-fast speed. Some patients experience only mild to moderate symptoms, while others lose the ability to chew, swallow, or even breathe without a ventilator. Ultimately, about one in 20 people with the condition die from it.

Since the disease moves at such a fast clip, it’s critical to identify and treat it promptly. Sadly, however, patients who show up at the emergency room with symptoms of GBS are often told that they’re suffering from stress or dehydration and sent home. In many such cases, the muscle weakness keeps intensifying, and patients end up back at the hospital practically paralyzed.

Despite abundant progress in many other disease areas in recent years, there is still no therapy approved specifically for GBS in the United States. The two commonly used to treat GBS -- intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange -- have to be administered in a number of courses and can take weeks to take effect.

With the current standard of care, 40% of GBS patients will still need to be admitted to the ICU. One-quarter will require mechanical ventilation. Close to one-fifth can’t walk within one year of treatment, and about half experience pain for upwards of three years following recovery.

The good news is that scientists could be on the verge of a paradigm-shifting breakthrough. As we speak, researchers are working overtime to develop therapies that, for the first time, specifically target GBS. One experimental treatment has shown the potential to cut total recovery time, and thus the amount of time the disease has to progress, in half.

These advancements offer hope that, one day, patients of all ages -- whether they’re five or 85 -- will have access to faster, more effective treatments for GBS. With better treatments, we could finally ease the burden of this terrifying, debilitating disease.

Lisa Butler is president and CEO of GBS / CIDP Foundation International, a global nonprofit organization supporting individuals and their families affected by Guillain-Barré syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and related conditions. (gbs-cidp.org).