Strange but True. Perhaps it impression that comes to your mind after hearing about something rare disease. In addition to having unique symptoms, rare diseases are sometimes fatal and not yet can be treated. Come on, recognize some of the rare diseases in the world with the following unique symptoms!
A rare disease is a disease that occurs rarely or has a very small number of sufferers. A study states that there are at least more than 7,000 rare diseases that affect 8-10 percent of the world's population. This means, there are about 500 million people in this world who suffer from this rare disease.
Some Types of Rare Diseases That Are Unheard of
Of the many rare diseases that exist in the world, here are some of them:
1. Progeria
Progeria is a rare disease that can occur in children. This disease makes children's bodies age quickly. This is due to abnormal genetic changes in the child's body. But unfortunately, it is not known exactly what triggers these genetic changes.
Progeria can be recognized by the appearance of a number of symptoms. By the age of one year, children born with progeria usually experience hair loss and stunted growth.
Other symptoms that can be experienced by children with progeria are a narrow face shape, small jaw, protruding eyes, loud voice, and hearing loss. In addition, progeria can also make sufferers experience muscle problems, brittle bones, and stiff joints.
2. Riley Day syndrome or immune to pain
You may have wondered, is there anyone who can't feel pain? The answer is there. But, it's not that they have super powers, but that they suffer from Riley Day syndrome.
This disease is very rare. Some of these cases are only found in Eastern European countries or in people who have ancestors from Eastern Europe.
Immune to pain experienced by patients with Riley Day syndrome is the result of a disturbance in the sensory nervous system. This nervous system plays a role in controlling a person's ability to taste, feel heat or cold, including feeling pain. This condition is usually caused by a genetic disorder.
In addition to the sensory nervous system, Riley Day syndrome can also interfere with the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system, which control breathing, digestion, body temperature, blood pressure, and tear production. Some of the symptoms that arise due to the disruption of these two nervous systems are abnormal blood pressure, shortness of breath, no tears when crying, diarrhea, and difficulty speaking.
3. Alien hand syndrome
The main symptom of alien hand syndrome is not being able to control hand movements. The hand will move by itself, as if someone is moving it or as if it has its own control. Even in certain cases, this uncontrollable movement also occurs in the legs.
Alien hand syndrome can be caused by several things. A handful of new people develop this disease after a stroke, cancer, problems with the brain, or after undergoing brain surgery.
4. Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP)
This rare disease is characterized by a number of skin disorders, such as redness, burning, blistering, and pain, due to exposure to sunlight even if only briefly. Therefore, people living with this rare disease should even avoid sun exposure completely.
Xeroderma pigmentosum arises as a result of a genetic disorder that is passed down from parents. This genetic disorder makes the body unable to repair or replace DNA damaged by sun exposure. Only 1 in 250 thousand people in the world suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum.
Some studies show that this disease is more common in Japan and some countries in Africa.
5. Duchenne muscular dystrophy
This disease is also known by other names Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This rare disease is almost entirely experienced by men. Muscular dystrophy occurs due to a genetic disorder that causes the body's muscles to not grow and function normally.
This disease usually begins to cause complaints and symptoms in children around the age of 3-4 years. Symptoms of this disease can include impaired growth and development, and weakness of the muscles of the pelvis, legs, and shoulders, difficulty walking, and learning disorders.
Apart from the above conditions, there are also other rare diseases, such as dextrocardia and site invertus, a rare disease in which the heart and other organs are located opposite to their normal location, stone man's disease, and cri du chat syndrome.
Until now, there is no known effective way to treat the various rare diseases above. To anticipate the possibility of this disease, early detection can be done since the fetus is still in the womb. One of them is by genetic testing.
