Albinism in Nigeria. A clinical and social study

Abstract

A study of 1000 Nigerian albinos, all of Negro stock, showed various types of albinism with their different modes of transmission--oculocutaneous, ocular and cutaneous. The much higher incidence among the more settled communities in the south, compared with the more nomadic communities in the north, may be related to greater inbreeding tendencies in the south. The sun and society are hostile to the albinos. Under the tropical sunshine, their melanin-deficient skin develops wrinkles, lentigines, actinic keratoses and epitheliomata from which they may die in early adult life or in middle age. Myopia and other ocular defects retard the progress of many albinos in school and they eventually drop out to seek disastrous menial outdoor occupations. Registering albinos early in life, assuring their families that albino defects are confined to the skin and eyes, advising on protective clothing and sun-screening agents, correcting myopia, assisting with indooor occupations, and early treatment of actinic keratoses and skin cancer should help many albinos to attain social acceptance and a ripe old age.