Statistics show that about 1 in 17,000 suffer from some form of Albinism. It is an inherited disorder of melanin pigment of the body and is known to affect animals too.

Albinism affects people from all races. This condition is known to affect mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The ‘white leopard’ is a well known such example. The most common term for an individual affected by albinism is "albino".

Albinism is an inherited defect affecting melanin production and metabolism. And statistics show that about 1 in 17,000 suffer from some type of albinism.

There are two main categories of albinism:

Skin and Eyes affected (Oculocutaneous albinism - OCA) It is the most common form of albinism and affects the eyes, skin and hair. This in turn can be categorized into different types based on the specific gene involved.

In Type 1 albinism there is a defect in the metabolism of an amino acid called tyrosine that leads to failure in converting tyrosine to melanin. The conversion normally happens due to an enzyme called tyrosinase, however, if there is a defect in the enzyme it fails to happen.

In Type 2 albinism there is a defect in the "P" gene. In this type there is only minor defect in the pigmentation at birth.

However the most severe form of Albinism affects hair, skin, and eye (more specifically the iris of the eye) that they are white or pink. They also suffer from vision defects, usually myopia or short sightedness and require glasses.

There are some conditions in which there is only a specific area of the body that is affected by the condition. These include:

Ocular albinism type1 (OA1): In this condition the skin color is usually normal and eye color may be in the normal range. But close examination of the eye reveals that there is no pigment in the retina. It accounts for about 10 to 15% of the albinism cases. It can be inherited either by an X-linked or an autosomal recessive process.

Waardenberg syndrome: where there is only a small lock of hair on the forehead that is white and not pigmented or there maybe just one or both eyes (the iris) that has absence of pigment.

Chediak-Higashi syndrome: lack of melanin pigment all over the body with few areas being spared.

Tuberous sclerosis (white leaf macule): these are small localized areas of depigmentation.

Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome or HPS: This condition is associated with a great range in degrees of pigmentation, from no pigmentation to almost normal coloring. Vision usually ranges from 20/60 to 20/200(normal vision is 20/20). People with HPS lack dense bodies in their blood platelets which are responsible for releasing clotting factors. It is a single-gene disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. It is a form of albinism associated with a bleeding tendency (bleeding disorder) along with problems of lungs (lung fibrosis) and bowel diseases.