International Albinism Awareness Day丨Today, let’s learn about the “Moon Child”

Are there some "special" people around you who have beautiful names - "Children of the Moon" and some people even call them "Snow White".

But in real life, behind this beautiful name comes the bitterness of illness. They are people with albinism. Due to their unique appearance, they are often more timid and inferior than normal people. In fact, they are just a little whiter in skin and more sensitive to light, and they also need our friendship and care.

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Today is International Albinism Awareness Day. Let us understand what albinism is.

Albinism is closely related to melanin. It is a rare familial genetic disease that occurs regardless of ethnicity or gender, and there are cases all over the world.

Under normal circumstances, tyrosine in human melanocytes undergoes a series of reactions catalyzed by tyrosinase and ultimately produces melanin.

Albinism patients lack the tyrosinase gene due to a defect in the tyrosinase gene, so they cannot effectively catalyze the conversion of tyrosine into a melanin precursor, and thus cannot form the metabolic end product melanin, leading to albinism. Albinism is a familial hereditary disease that often occurs in people who marry close relatives.

In addition, acquired factors such as sudden exposure to tremendous stress may also affect pigment production, resulting in the situation of "white hair overnight" as in the story "The White-Haired Girl".

In our country, about 1 in every 18,000 people suffers from the disease.

Due to the lack of protection from melanin, people with albinism have milky white or pink skin, light white or yellowish hair, and light pink or light gray irises and pupils.

The skin of albinos is highly sensitive to light, and they are prone to sunburn and various photosensitive dermatitis after sun exposure, but their skin does not darken after sun exposure. These people also often suffer from photocheilitis, telangiectasia, some develop solar keratosis, and may develop basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. They are also usually afraid of light and always squint when looking at things.

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Is albinism hereditary?

Albinism is generally inherited in an autosomal recessive manner and is often caused by inbreeding.

The patient's parents both carry the albinism gene, but they themselves do not develop the disease; if both parents pass the disease-causing gene to their children, they will develop the disease. The chance of developing the disease is equal for both male and female children, with a 1/4 chance.

Ocular albinism is only caused when the albinism gene carried by the mother is passed on to her son. It is generally not caused when it is passed on to her daughter. The probability of transmission is 1/2.

This type accounts for a relatively small proportion of all albinism types.

How is albinism treated?

Albinism is a hereditary skin disease. Currently, drug treatment is ineffective. Only physical methods such as shading can be used to alleviate the patient's discomfort symptoms. The white spots can also be weakened or even disappear through the use of photosensitive drugs, hormones, etc.

At the same time, the focus of prevention and treatment of albinism is also on preventing the occurrence of complications, improving the quality of life and preventing the parents of children with albinism from giving birth to sick offspring again.

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Although most albinos have a special appearance and poor eyesight, they have normal intelligence and the disease is not contagious. However, many people in society do not understand their pain and look at them differently because of their special appearance. This makes them marginalized, excluded by society, and suffer various forms of insults. This is also one of the meanings of establishing the International Albinism Awareness Day - to eliminate discrimination against people with albinism .

Everyone should be treated gently, and every life deserves to be respected and accepted. I hope everyone will stop verbally hurting people, stop looking at people with albinism differently, and care for people with albinism together and give them a more tolerant living environment! ​

Comprehensive sources: United Nations official website, Xinhuanet, Science Popularization China, etc.