As a result of an elemental attack on a small coral island nearly 250 years ago, many of its inhabitants now struggle with complete color blindness called achromatopsia. This disease is hereditary and most often affects small, closed communities that have become the inhabitants of the islet.
In 1775 a typhoon struck the atoll (coral flat island) of Pingelap in the Pacific Ocean. The element decimated the already small population of the island. Only 20 of all residents survived the meeting with him. The attack of the element not only dramatically reduced the population of the atoll, but also contributed to the fact that now (after so many years) 10% the inhabitants of the island sees only in black and white. These people suffer from an extremely rare condition called achromatopsia, which is the inability to distinguish colors.
Some of the inhabitants of this island see only black and white
According to the popular scientific website IFLScience, one of the siblings living on the island probably had a recessive gene responsible for this extremely rare condition, i.e. achromatopsia. Two brothers who survived an elemental attack.
«Semenuhwe had one child while Mwahuele had seven with three different women. One of his sons married his cousin, that is, the daughter of Semenuhwe » — translates IFLScience.
Later, due to the fact that there were so few people on Pingelap Atoll, there was a significant spread of the gene, making it present in 10% of people. of all the inhabitants of the island. Normally, this disease affects about 1 in 30. people in the world.
“Hundreds of years later, this bottleneck of the population caused complete color blindness in a large proportion of the population” — explains IFLScience.
Achromatopsja—co to?
Achromatopsia (known as total color blindness) is a rare and genetically conditioned vision defect resulting from retinal disease. Its symptoms are:
- color blindness,
- photophobia,
- nystagmus,
- significant reduction in visual acuity.
The cause of achromatopsia is the lack or impairment of the function of the suppositories, which are responsible for color, sharp and photopic vision, i.e. daytime vision. People with this ailment do not recognize colors at all, and perceive the world in shades of gray. Achromatopsia is most often hereditary, but it can also be acquired as a result of various eye injuries or diseases.
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