Oculocutaneous Albinism Essay

There are many reasons why I decided to choose oculocutaneous albinism to write about, from the praise albinos get in the fashion industry to the hurt and horrible mistreatment from some African towns. It has always been my interest on how an affected person became the way they are now. From the normalcy of their speech, activity and functions but the difference of milky white skin and colorless hair. Skin color has never been an issue for me but to see someone with albinism peaks my interest because of its rarity and beauty.
Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. (GeneReviews, 2015) This means that there has to be two copies of the gene holding the mutation. The affect person is the offspring of two carriers that have the mutated gene. The two parents do not have to show signs of albinism to carry the gene. According to GeneReviews, the most cases of Oculocutaneous Albinism type 1 happen when the parents of the affected are obligate heterozygotes. (GeneReviews, 2015) At conception each offspring has a 25% chance of being unaffected, a 25% chance of being affected, and a 50% chance of being …show more content…
Oculocutaneous albinism type 1 however, affects all ethnic groups and there is no place, or group of people who are more affected than others. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, type 2 is shown more in African American’s, some Native American groups, and people from the sub-Saharan parts of Africa. In type 3, specifically speaking about rufous oculocutaneous albinism, shows up in cases of people from southern Africa. Other studies show that Korean and Japanese populations are more affected by type 4 than any other parts of the world. Though there are so many different types of Oculocutaneous albinism but studies have only shown links to ethic groups in types 2, 3, and