The Brazilian ghost town where almost everyone has to live indoors as 600 of its 800 inhabitants suffer disorder which causes them to lose their faces if they see the sun.
A rare genetic disorder has enveloped a Brazilian village. Araras in the State of Sao Paolo is a now a ghost town because most residents suffer from "Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP)", which means their skin is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light.
Out of the 800 people in the village, 600 are affected by XP. Of those, 20 have full-blown symptoms and are susceptible to an aggressive form of skin cancer.
Djalma Jardin has just one eye that he can't close because he has Xeroderma Pigmentosum
A villager, Djalma Jardin had just one eye which he was unable to close and he spent his days indoors due to a rare genetic disorder. His face was ravaged by the disease, leaving him with just one eye. He slept with a plaster over it because damage to his eyelid meant he couldn't close it.
"If I go out I feel the sun burning me. I go to bed and wake up the next day with a small spot, and then in a couple of days it's growing quickly, like the one I got in my eye which never stopped growing. It's an awful disease, terrible."
Following the interview, Jardin's condition worsened and the illness sadly cost him his life. His family has already lost another relative to the disorder and another of Jardin's brothers and his sister, Claudia are also affected by it.
Sao Paulo-based genetics biologist, Dr Carlos Menck recognised the condition and was keen to know why it was so rampant in the village. "We went to the area and tried to identify genetic mutations affecting the patients. Until not long ago, people believed it was a contagious disease, but it's an inherited disease."
Affected man who has plasters and bandages in his eyes, isolated in his house
After running tests on all of the villagers, Dr Menck and his team discovered 600 of the 800 villagers were carrying a recessive XP gene.
XERODERMA PIGMENTOSUM: AN EXTREMELY RARE GENETIC ILLNESS
Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) is a life-altering genetic condition characterised by an extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) rays. Unless patients with XP are protected from UV, their skin and eyes may be severely damaged and this can lead to cancer.
XP is an extremely rare hereditary condition. About 30% of people with XP also develop neurological abnormalities which can include hearing loss and loss of mobility. There is no cure for XP, but much can be done to prevent and treat some of the problems it causes.
Source: Dailymail / Teddington Trust
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