And staying with climate change, its impacts on skin cancer in people with albinism are both deadly and largely overlooked, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said last week.
Muluka-Anne Miti-Drummond, the special rapporteur on albinism issues, said that in Africa alone, persons with albinism are up to 1,000 times more likely to develop skin cancer, with many dying by the age of 40. She says she has campaigned tirelessly for sunscreen to be made freely available to persons with albinism, as a “life-saving medical product that can prolong and improve the quality of life for many who don’t have the means to afford it.”
People with albinism also have visual impairment, the expert said, and as such are disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters. Miti-Drummond called for the inclusion of people with albinism in all fora related to climate change and disaster management, saying that for many of them, climate change is “a matter of life and death”.