KATIHAR, INDIA — A baby born with unusual deformed features in an Indian village earlier this week has medical experts, religious followers, and users online discussing what it all means.
Doctors treating the newborn boy have diagnosed him with Harlequin Ichthyosis, a rare genetic disorder that creates thick skin and deformities. Medical experts who’ve seen photos of the child say his features could also be a case of a defect called anencephaly, which results in babies born without critical parts of the brain and skull.
The child’s mother, Khalida Begum, 35, went into labor on March 20. Upon giving birth to her fourth child, Begum was stunned to meet whom she called the “alien-looking boy,” and reportedly told the midwife assisting with the birth to take him out of her sight.
Once her initial shock wore off, Begum’s motherly instincts returned and she willingly breastfed the child hours later. Following the boy’s birth, word spread through local villages, and herds of devout Hindus showed up to worship the child, whom they believe may be a reincarnation of one of their gods, Lord Hanuman.
According to medical journal Pediatric Dermatology, harlequin ichthyosis affects an estimated one in 300,000 births, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states three out of every 10,000 children are born with anencephaly.
Doctors treating the newborn boy have diagnosed him with Harlequin Ichthyosis, a rare genetic disorder that creates thick skin and deformities. Medical experts who’ve seen photos of the child say his features could also be a case of a defect called anencephaly, which results in babies born without critical parts of the brain and skull.
The child’s mother, Khalida Begum, 35, went into labor on March 20. Upon giving birth to her fourth child, Begum was stunned to meet whom she called the “alien-looking boy,” and reportedly told the midwife assisting with the birth to take him out of her sight.
Once her initial shock wore off, Begum’s motherly instincts returned and she willingly breastfed the child hours later. Following the boy’s birth, word spread through local villages, and herds of devout Hindus showed up to worship the child, whom they believe may be a reincarnation of one of their gods, Lord Hanuman.
According to medical journal Pediatric Dermatology, harlequin ichthyosis affects an estimated one in 300,000 births, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states three out of every 10,000 children are born with anencephaly.
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