Tips Clear News Portal Your Ultimate Guide to Clear Tips on Life, Tech, Health, and More You have probably already heard of the disease called “children of the moon”, but you may not know in detail what characterizes it and that is what we are offering you to discover today. giving you some more specific information about the disorders that accompany this particular syndrome and the nature of it.
1. It’s an inherited disease
Xeroderma pigmentosum is a genetic disease that is transmitted hereditarily from parents to children. You can very well be a carrier of the disease without being sick and transmit it to one of your children who will declare it, but both parents must be carriers for one of their children to be sick.
2. It is an extremely rare disease
The fact that both parents must be carriers to transmit the disease to a child and that this child will not necessarily declare it reduces the number of cases. It is therefore called a rare disease (we speak of a rare disease when 0.05% of the world’s population is affected) and affects four out of a million births in Europe and the United States. In the Middle East and Japan, on the other hand, it affects ten births out of a million.
3. The first symptoms appear before two years
The first symptoms appear in the child barely a few months after birth and can take several forms affecting the skin (redness similar to sunburn that appears after a little exposure to the sun) and the eyes. Parents of a child with Xeroderma pigmentosum can do a prenatal exam during a second pregnancy to find out if the new child will also have the disease.
4. The skin is the target of many disorders
In patients, the epidermis cannot be exposed to ultraviolet rays and therefore to the sun. In addition to redness, freckles called freckles can also appear when the child is in the sun and he can develop “solar keratoses” (pre-cancerous spots) after two years. In these children the first cancers can appear before the age of ten.
5. Eyesight is also often affected
Photophobia can develop in some children and can be accompanied by many complications that are characterized by different eye ailments and problems: dry eyes, headaches, conjunctivitis, inflammation of the cornea, cataracts and the appearance of several types of eye cancers before the age of ten. Eyelashes can fall out and disappear completely in some children who do not benefit from sufficient protection.
6. Some patients also develop neurological disorders
Nearly a third of sick people may be affected by neurological disorders such as microcephaly (abnormally low growth of the cranial box), partial or total loss of hearing, but also muscle and tendon development problems which can lead to an absence partial or total reflexes. However, neurological complications remain rarer and can normally be mitigated by protection, which is not necessarily the case in poor countries.
7. Childhood Sun Exposure Affects Life Expectancy
Today the children of the moon have a much longer life expectancy than in the past. If they are not exposed to the sun during their childhood and protected according to the advice of medical specialists, they can fully envisage returning to normality in their lives, following studies and working once they reach adulthood. But for children who have not been able to protect themselves properly the lifespan can be greatly reduced.
8. Measures to protect yourself must be ubiquitous
In order to avoid being exposed to sunlight, moon children can measure UV exposure with a dosimeter when they are outdoors. Homes and vehicles can be equipped with anti-UV windows, special clothing exists as well as extremely powerful sunscreens. Daily life is obviously centered around protection from the sun, but it is possible to reduce the risks.