Transcript Albinism - shsbiogeneticdisorders

Albinism
What is albinism
• Albinism is where someone is missing
something called melanin. Which is what gives
you the pigment of your skin. 1 in 17,000
Children are diagnosed with Albinism. If one
parent carries the albinism trait, there is a 1 in
4th chance the child will have it.
Chromosome graphic of albinism
Effects/symptoms
• Albinism doesn’t have any effects on
someone's health.
• It only affects a persons appearance and
nothing more
• Some symptoms are: White skin, decrease in
vision, functional blindness, rapid eye
movement, lazy eye, sensitivity to sunlight.
Prognosis
• There are only a few things tat can happen
and the major one though small, is lack of
sociality. It does not slow growth or cause
mental retardation.
Treatment of Albinism
• The only kind of treatments for albinism is to
fix the eye issues through visual rehabilitation.
Graphics
These are African Americans in Africa with
Albinism.
Great story of an albino African women
•
Growing up in Jackson, MS, I gravitated toward white people. It felt natural, I suppose, because I looked like them. While my cousins
got black baby dolls for Christmas, mine were always peaches and cream. Once, during playtime in elementary school, one of the
black girls told me I couldn't join her group. My doll, she said, was the wrong color.
Later, I understood what she meant was that I was the wrong color. Like my doll, I was blonde and green-eyed-the only one in a
mass of brown skin. I am African-American, born with a genetic abnormality called albinism, meaning I've got little to no pigment in
my skin. Albinism is a recessive trait, so both parents must carry the gene in order to conceive a child with it. It's more common
than you'd think-one in 17,000 children is born with albinism.
My mom was only 16 when I was born. She did her best to protect me, but I knew early on that I was different. Everywhere we
went-the mall, the grocery store-people stared at me. You could see the question on their faces: "Is she really yours?"
My dad died from pneumonia when I was 7. Mostly what I remember about him is the way he stood up for me. One day I asked
him, "Why do people always look at me?" He said, "It's because you're so beautiful."
But some of my extended family were less charitable. Most of my relatives are from the Mississippi Delta, where blacks and whites
still live separately. The notion of forming a friendship with a white person is foreign to my relatives, so how were they supposed to
treat me? The only way, it seemed, was by singling me out and teasing me. "White girl!" they'd call me. I felt like I was a betrayal to
my race.
My mom had more practical fears, like whether I'd get sun damage if she let me go outside. The complete absence of melanin in my
skin means I don't tan-I just burn, baby, burn. Any time I went to a family reunion or church picnic, she'd slather me with sunscreen
and make me wear a hat. During recess, I had to sit in the shade. When I was in fourth grade, my mom wrote a note to excuse me
from field day, but I didn't give it to my teacher. Instead, I played all day under the hot sun. When I got in the car after school, my
mother noticed that my face was red. I tried to lie my way through it, but my face kept getting redder, and my body started
blistering. I didn't go to school for a week because I was so sick.
Bibliography
• . http://www.zebracorn.com/history.htm
• http://www.healthofchildren.com/A/Albinism.
html
http://runklescience.wikispaces.com/Albinism
• http://rarediseases.about.com/od/raredisease
sa/a/082704.htm
• http://www.marieclaire.com/worldreports/news/latest/black-white-skin