One in eight residents of the village of Araras suffers from a rare skin disease, which is called “xeroderma pigmentosum” which prevents the body to replace the skin cells that are destroyed by solar ultraviolet radiation (UV).
It is an unexplainable until today phenomenon in a specific small area, since the condition affects, as a rule, one person one million inhabitants. It is estimated that the first inhabitants of the village were from only two families, where the disease was already present.
Many residents of the village are unable longer to work in rural enterprises in the region, and some of them have resorted to the use of special masks that protect the face from the sun and at the same time hide the wounds that have been created permanently in the lips, nose, cheeks and eyes.
Those who suffer from the specific disease, exhibiting symptoms from quite a young age. The first of these is a strong appearance of freckles and bumps on their skin.
It is an autoimmune condition which makes the skin and the skin tissue that covers especially the eyes extremely sensitive to the sun. It is also a condition that is transmitted when both parents are carriers of the rare gene which causes xeroderma pigmentosum (XP).
Normally, when our body is exposed to sunlight, the UV rays damage the DNA of our skin cells, but the agency is in a position to replace it with new cells. However, in individuals with XP, the agency is not in a position to do this.
Currently, there is no method for the treatment of this disease and currently, the best way to control symptoms of the disease is to avoid the patients the sunlight and use sunscreen, hats and sunglasses, when they go out.
Source
Incredible: Melt their skin from the sun because of rare illness
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