As a teenager, I came across an individual who I saw different than others and did not quite understand why. This male individual had white hair, pale skin, and light eyes. I was confused and I asked my mother why was he like that and said it was disease they are born with. She said in Spanish they are known as “hijos del sol” (children of the sun). These individuals are known as albinos who have a condition of albinism. In “Albinism: Symptoms, Causes, and Diagnosis,” Newman (2016) stated that albinism is an inherited disease characterized with reduction of melanin production that is affecting 1 in 17,000 people. Melanin is the pigment, which is responsible for the skin, eyes, and hair color. Mostly people with albinism have pale skin, lighter …show more content…
Due to the fact that they do not have enough of melanin, which protects the skin from ultraviolent damage, they are more sensitive to sun exposure. Albinos are identified in a particular type of oculocutaneous albinism that differs by the changes of color in their skin, hair, and eye and caused by mutation (Newman, 2016). A recent study has shown that people who have type 1 of oculocutaneous occurs about 1/40,000 worldwide, which is higher in white populations and rare in black population. These individuals have whitish skin, white hair and blue eyes. The second type of oculocutaneous is a common form of albinism worldwide due to high popularity in southern Africa, where it occurs in 1/3 of 900 blacks. It occurs mostly to African Americans and Native Americans. They tend to have yellow to light brown hair, while their skin is pale. In addition, the popularity of oculocutaneous type 3 among southern African blacks is 1/8 of 580. These albinos have reddish hair and their skin color is reddish-brown (Manga, Kerr, Ramsay and Kromberg, 2013). Lastly there is type 4 of oculocutaneous, which is less common but occurs more often in East Asian populations (Newman, …show more content…
The most noticeable symptom of albinism is having a lighter skin tone. Sometimes as individuals get older the levels of melanin might increase which an individual can obtain a darker skin tone. Albinos who are expose too much to the sun can develop freckles, moles that are pink, and large freckle spots called lentigines. Another symptom can be having very white hair but it can also be brown. As hair color changes eyes as well change in an individual with albinism. People can have from light blue to brown eyes. As there is a low level of melanin the iris tends to appear translucent or sometimes exposure to light can make the iris look pink or red. Due to the fact they have low pigment it prevents the iris from completely blocking sunlight, which makes individuals with albinism be sensitive to light. Finally, people with albinism have trouble with their vision. Some vision problems can cause the eye to move rapidly and nonstop from side to side, which is called nystagmus. Another problem is when the eyes are not looking at same direction at the same time, which is called strabismus. People with albinism also suffer nearsightedness and farsightedness. Besides that they have no tolerance of light due to the discomfort in their eyes, which it is known as photophobia. Babies born with albinism tend to have the worst vision problems, but after six months it improves even