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Albinism: Characteristics and symptoms, Causes and treatments

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Albinism: Characteristics and symptoms, Causes and treatments
Characteristics and symptoms

The characteristics and symptoms of albinism are:

- very light skin color

- blondish-white colored hair

- visual impairments that require glasses

- tendency to sunburn easily,

- hearing impairments

- blood-clotting problems

- red/pink eyes

- Low Vision

- Sensitivity to bright light and glare

- involuntary eye movements

- "Slowness to see" in infancy

- Inability of the eyes to work together

These are all symptoms of albinos but an albino can have perfect health and only suffer from very light skin.

Causes

Albinism is caused when a person inherits two recessive genes that cause them to not produce the normal amount of melanin. This makes their skin and hair lighter and can cause their eyes to appear red/pink. The other conditions that come with this condition are caused overtime mainly from sun damage because there is no melanin to block the sun and stop them from getting sun damage.

Treatments

There is no cure for albinism but there are treatments for the conditions associated with it. For the vision problems contact lenses, glasses or laser surgery will correct the problem. For the eye problems that are caused by the eye movements there are simple operations that will fix the eye that is not functioning properly. As for the superficial Characteristics such as the white skin and hair and the red/pink eyes makeup, fake tan and coloured contact lenses can all hide the problem.

Resources.

http://www.geocities.com/judice363/bio_p/treatments.html

www.blindbabies.org/factsheet_albinism.htm

www.albinism.org/publications/what_is_albinism.html

www.revoptom.com/HANDBOOK/SECT58a.HTM

www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2186
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