Black Couple in Brazil has 3 Albino Children….WHAT?!
10 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Brazil News
Well the title says it all. Here’s the story in Portuguese, but for those who don’t speak the language, I’ll explain it in English.
A couple who live in a favela in the state of Pernambuco (which happens to be the state where my fabulous boyfriend is from) have five children. Two of the kids are black like the parents and the other three are albino. Of course these children have special needs and therefore, it is difficult for the parents to take care of them. They can’t afford to buy the necessary clothing to protect them from the sun. The parents are afraid that the kids will get skin cancer because of this. The kids also suffer because they get picked on in school (and other places) where people don’t believe that their mother is really their mother.
Valdir Balbino, a genetics professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, says that this is a very rare case – especially because the other two children are not affected. Both parents need to have the gene for albinism in order for their children to be affected. And then there is only a 25% chance that it will occur. However, this happened three times in this case.
Here’s a picture from the story on the Época website:
