[科技前沿]黑人美女如何"褪成"白色麗人

一個黑色女孩在完全沒有手術的情況下自己的膚色自然轉變成了白色，這究竟是怎麼回事呢？據悉，23歲的Darcel de Vlugt天生擁有一身健康的黝黑皮膚，白癜風使她完全蛻變，從自己的黑色皮膚中走出，現在擁有一身靚麗的白色，這令衆多皮膚專家不得不感慨。

The black girl who turned into a white woman after vitiligo （白癜風）changed colour of her entire body

Her skin is so pale that she wears Factor 100 sun cream（防曬指數100的防曬霜） on even a dull summer day.

Yet, incredibly, 23-year-old Darcel de Vlugt was born black.

In a case of extreme rarity, the skin condition vitiligo has taken the pigment（天然色素） from her entire body.

Experts say they have never come across such a striking change and she says: 'I have a hard job convincing people that I was actually born with dark skin.'

Darcel's parents Peter and Charmaine, both from Trinidad, noticed white spots on her forearm and forehead （前臂和前額）when she was five.

Doctors diagnosed vitiligo, the same condition said to have affected Michael Jackson.
By the age of seven, white patches had appeared on her legs along with white spots on the rest of her body.

These gradually grew bigger until, when she was 17, the transformation was complete.
'My father worked for the United Nations and we travelled the world a lot with his job,' said Darcel, now a fashion designer in London.

'My family believe the stress of moving at such a young age brought on the condition.

'At the age of 12 I tried UV laser treatment（紫外線激光治療）, but it didn't work and by then, 80 per cent of my body was white so I decided to leave it.'

Vitiligo causes the immune system to attack the pigment cells（色素細胞） which give skin its colour.

It affects one person in 100 of any age, race or colour although it is normally more noticeable in those with naturally dark skin. Darcel has a brother Dion, 29, who is unaffected.

Their father still works for the UN and is now based in Africa.
Last month in the Mail, Luke Davis described how he had changed from black to white apart from a circular patch on his back.

Keke View：　白癜風（vitiligo）一詞來源於拉丁語vitium,意“缺損”，或vi-tellus,指“小牛白色斑片”。公元一世紀，羅馬醫生Celsus所寫DeMedicina中，可見vitiligo一詞。Vitiligo在許多古籍中常常出現。印度文獻中，kilas(kil指白色，as意拋棄)和palita(pal含灰色、年老、老年之意)可追溯到公元前1500~1000年，指的是皮膚上的白色斑片。佛教聖書Vinay Pitak(624~544B.C.)中記載，患kilas的人不能做牧師。印度Manusmriti(200 B.C.)中記載，患svitra(白斑)不受尊重。《古蘭經》中baras一詞意指白色皮膚，常用來描述Jesus治癒後的狀況。