All you need to know about ‘Harlequin’ baby born in a farmer’s family in Nagpur

The bay girl was born in Nagpur's Lata Mangeshkar Medical College and Hospital at around 12:30 AM on Saturday.

Nagpur, June 12: In a first and extremely rare case of its kind, a ‘Harlequin’ baby girl was born in a farmer’s family in Nagpur during wee hours on Saturday. The baby girl suffering through a severe congenital disorder and missing external body skin totally, was born during the wee hours.

The bay girl was born in Nagpur’s Lata Mangeshkar Medical College and Hospital at around 12:30 AM on Saturday. A team of doctors, including Dr Yash Banait, Dr Prachi Dixit, Dr Meenakshi and Dr Nilofar Mujawar were involved in the delivery. news agency PTI reported.

The baby was born pre-term with a hardened skin and weighed 1.2 kg at birth. The baby is born without ears, is completely blind with two bright red bulges in place of eyes, also has just two small holes for a nose and an inverted eye lid. The hard surface covering her body is full of cracks.

The government medical at Nagpur are conducting more tests on the baby to ascertain her medical condition. In medical parlance, this rare condition is termed as Harlequin-type ichthyosis which is a very rare severe genetic skin disease that causes thickening of the stratum corneum of the epidermis. Read Also: (Rare ‘Harlequin’ baby born in Nagpur)

In such cases body of infant is covered with an ‘armour’ of thick white plates of skin, separated with deep cracks. Yash Banait, a pediatrician taking care of the baby girl was quoted by Indian Express where he said, “Such babies are prone to infection as their internal organs are exposed”.

Harlequin ichthyosis are usually detected during the fourth month of pregnancy after regular ultrasounds. Doctors usually advise a termination of the fetus in such cases for which pre-natal testing is required. But this baby has been born into a farmer’s family who that is below the poverty line and they could not afford testing.

Experts believe that the baby was born with a congenital disorder, which occurs because of mutation in the genes and is rare as it is found in one in three lakh births.

Signs and symptoms of Harlequin-type ichthyosis

In this case babies are born with thick, fissured armor-plate hyperkeratosis. They suffered sever cranial and facial deformities with ears may be poorly developed or absent completely. In such cases the eyelids of baby may be everted, due to which the eyes and area around it gets infected easily.

Diagnosis of Harlequin-type ichthyosis

The diagnosis of Harlequin-type ichthyosis can be ascertained by both physical as well as pathological examination. It is usually detected during the fourth month of pregnancy after regular ultrasounds check up is conducted on pregnant women. In such cases pre-natal testing is required which is quite expensive in India.

Treatment of Harlequin-type ichthyosis

In such cases constant care is required of patients to moisture and protect the skin. In past, the disorder was nearly fatal and most common reason was infection. However good neonatal intensive care of such cases with early treatment may improve survival.

History of Harlequin-type ichthyosis

The Harlequin-type ichthyosis disorder was first discovered in 1750 in United States, South Carolina district. The first baby diagnosed with Harlequin-type ichthyosis survived for about forty-eight hours

Notable case of Harlequin-type ichthyosis

The oldest known Harlequin baby who survived is Nusrit “Nelly” Shaheen, from Pakistan who was born in 1984 and was last reported to be healthy in May 2008. She is one of the nine children born in a Pakistani Muslim family and reportedly studying sports coaching and leadership at Hereward College.