This 2-year-old Indian girl suffers from rare skin condition causing her to develop lizard-like scales

Image credit: Cover Asia Press/ Faisal Magray

New Delhi: These heartbreaking pictures say everything about the painful condition of a child whose skin sheds everyday.

Shama, a two-year-old Indian girl is suffering from lamellar ichthyosis - a rare skin condition that affects just one in every 600,000 people.

The debilitating skin condition has caused the child to develop lizard-like scales all over her body, causing her skin to harden and leaving her in agonising pain. This makes her prone to infections as well.

Lamellar ichthyosis is a rare genetic skin disorder and is present at birth. Affected babies are born in a collodion membrane, a shiny, waxy-appearing outer layer to the skin. People with the condition tend to have plate-like scales covering their skin on most of their body.

This condition is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder, which means the defective gene is located on an autosome, and both parents must carry one copy of the defective gene in order to have a child born with the disorder. Carriers of a recessive gene usually do not show any signs or symptoms of the disorder.

Infants with lamellar ichthyosis may develop infections, an excessive loss of fluids (dehydration), and respiratory problems. Affected individuals may also have hair loss (alopecia), abnormally formed fingernails and toenails (nail dystrophy), a decreased ability to sweat (hypohidrosis), an increased sensitivity to heat, eye problems and difficulty bending the hand joints.

Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for this condition, but symptoms can be relieved by regularly applying moisturisers, eye drops, etc.

Image credit: Cover Asia Press/ Faisal Magray (Shama with her parents Roshni Banu and Sabir Ali)

Shama's parents Roshni Banu, 22, and Sabir Ali, 25, who live in a slum in Delhi, said they have visiting temples and mosques, bought home remedies, but nothing has helped.