Color blindness is a genetic disease (sex linked trait) and to be more specific it is related with human’s chromosomes. This disease is a trait controlled by a recessive allele. Color blindness is also known as color vision problems. The meaning of color blindness is that a person has difficulties perceiving the colors red, green, and blue or a mix of these colors. However, it does not mean that a person cannot see any colors.
Color blindness is a sex linked trait and it is passed from the mother to her kids. However, it is only manifested in males. Females carry the color blindness disease and they transmit it her kids. On the other hand, males are the ones that suffer this illness for the rest of their life, but they cannot transmit it to their kids because females are the only ones that can transfer the disorder.
People that are color blind are because the cell cones in the eyes are not functioning right. The eye has three types of cone cells in the eyes which perceive the colors red, blue and green. If one of these cone cells is not working right, that person has disease of color blindness. This does not mean that the person cannot see any of these colors, what it means is that the person is seeing a different shade of that color and it cannot distinguish the color. Furthermore, color blindness cannot be treated and color blind people will have it for the rest of their life.
There are two types of test that doctors perform and they are very accurate. The first test consists of a set of colored dots that show a pattern like numbers of letters. These colored dots help the doctor to determine if that person is color blinded or not. If the person that is performing the test can follow the pattern, that person is not color blinded; however if it cannot follow it the person has the disease of color blindness. The second test uses colored chips and the person must have to set the chips in colored other, from similar to not similar. Nevertheless, the test that is most used is the colored dots.
Since color blindness does not have a cure, this disease can keep people out of certain jobs. Some careers such as such as airplane pilot, a ship captain, or a police officer cannot be performed by color blind people. These professions require good or perfect color vision, and because of the color blind illness people cannot perform those jobs. It is important to know if a person is color blind because it can help them what jobs they can do or they cannot do.
Doctors and experts recommend eye exams or color blindness test when kids are in a young age because it can affect their process of learning. For example, my brother and I have the disease of color blindness. My mom took my brother to the eye doctor because one day at school he inverted the color of a tree and the teacher sent my mom a letter saying that your son could suffer the illness of color blind. My mom took him to the doctor and he tested positive. My family did not know that he suffers the disease until they took him to the eye doctor. After that, my mom always sent a letter to the teachers saying that he was color blind. Since my brother is color blind, my mom decided to take me to the doctor and see if I was also color blind. And I tested positive.
In conclusion, color blindness is a disease that only affects males and females are the ones that transmit the illness. This disease can keep people out of certain jobs and it does not have a cure. If a person is born with this illness, that person will die with the disease. However, doctors are trying to find a cure, but they have not found a cure or treatment yet.
References
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/tc/color-blindness-topic-overview
