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In this March 3, 2014 photo, Djalma Antonio Jardim who has a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," looks in a a mirror at his home in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. In an effort to camouflage how the disease has eaten away the skin on his lips, nose, cheeks and eyes, Jardim wears a rudimentary orange-tinted mask, its stenciled-in right eyebrow not matching his bushy real one that remains. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__5_]()
In this April 9, 2014 photo, Dr. Sulamita Chaibub assists Djalma Antonio Jardim who has a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP" at the Hospital Geral de Goias in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. "I was always exposed to the sun, working, planting and harvesting rice and caring for the cows," said Jardim. "As the years passed my condition got worse." (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__8_]()
In this March 3, 2014 photo, Alisson Wendel Machado Freire, 11, listens to his grandfather Jose Claudio Machado, 77, play the guitar inside their home in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Both of them suffer from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP."(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__11_]()
In this March 4, 2014 photo, Joao Goncalves da Silva, 80, talks with his wife Geraldina Aleixo da Silva, 75, at their home in the Araras community in Brazil's Goias state. Both suffer from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP." Experts say Araras has such a high incidence rate because the village was founded by only a few families and several were carriers of the disease, meaning it was passed to future generations as villagers intermarried. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__12_]()
In this In this March 4, 2014 photo, residents ride horse carts in the Araras community in Goias state, in Brazil. Tucked into the sunbaked rolling hills of Brazil's midwest, Araras is home to what is thought to be the largest single group of people suffering from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP." (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__4_]()
In this March 3, 2014 photo, Djalma Antonio Jardim, who has a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," looks out the window from inside his home in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Jardim wears the large straw hat in an effort to protect his face, but it's helped little, as he has undergone more than 50 surgeries to remove skin tumors. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__14_]()
In this April 9, 2014 photo, Djalma Antonio Jardim talks with a receptionist at the Hospital Geral de Goias in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. For years, nobody could tell Jardim or the others in their community of Araras what was afflicting them. "The doctors I went to said I had a blood disorder. Others said I had a skin problem. But none said I had a genetic disease," Jardim said. "It was only in 2010 that my disease was properly diagnosed." (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__9_]()
In this March 3, 2014 photo, residents gather for a night of play pool in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Tucked into the sunbaked rolling hills of Brazil's midwest, Araras is home to what is thought to be the largest single group of people suffering from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP." (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__7_]()
In this March 3, 2014 photo, Alisson Wendel Machado Freire, 11, practices his horn instrument outside his home in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Machado suffers from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP." For years, nobody could tell residents who had this disease what was afflicting them. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__10_]()
In tis In this March 4, 2014 photo, Joao Goncalves da Silva, 80, who suffers from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," takes off his hat in the kitchen of his home in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Those with the disease are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet rays from sunlight and highly susceptible to skin cancers. Thats a particularly vexing burden in Araras, a tropical farming community where outdoor work is vital for survival. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__2_]()
In this March 4, 2014 photo, Rafael Freire de Andrade, 8, who suffers from a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," rides his bike that has a cardboard box to shade himself from th sun, in the Araras community of Brazil's Goias state. Those with the disease are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet rays from sunlight and highly susceptible to skin cancers. Thats a particularly vexing burden in Araras, a tropical farming community where outdoor work is vital for survival. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__6_]()
In this April 9, 2014 photo, Dr. Sulamita Chaibub assists Djalma Antonio Jardim, who has a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," at the Hospital Geral de Goias in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. Both of Jardim's parents were carriers of the gene that causes the disease, largely ensuring that he would have it. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__13_]()
In this April 9, 2014 photo, Djalma Antonio Jardim, who has a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," watches his cellphone as he waits for medical attention at the Hospital Geral de Goias in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. Jardim has undergone more than 50 surgeries to remove skin tumors. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)![Rare_Disease_Brazil__1_]()
In this April 9, 2014 photo, Deides Freire de Andrade, right, and Djalma Antonio Jardim, behind him, both who have a rare inherited skin disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," wait for medical attention at the Hospital Geral de Goias in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. More than 20 people in the Araras community of about 800 have XP. Thats an incidence rate of about one in 40 people, far higher than the one in 1 million people in the United States who have it. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)A Brazilian Village Where Residents Are Literally Melting Away
Those with xeroderma pigmentosum, or "XP," are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet rays from sunlight and highly susceptible to skin cancers.
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- A Brazilian Village Where Residents Are Literally Melting Away
