Asia-Pacific Features
Thailand's one-in-10-billion schoolgirl
By Peter Janssen
Sep 7, 2006, 6:33 GMT

Bangkok - Supatra Sasuphan, a naughty 6-year-old Thai schoolgirl, has a one-in-10-billion syndrome.

Supatra, nicknamed 'Nat,' attends Ratchabopitch kindergarten in Bangkok's Chinatown, where she is popular with her peers and teachers.

'Nat is unusually bright,' said Phetladda Piaboonmak, Nat's teacher. 'For example, when I give the children clay to work with, she will make something totally different than the others. If I give a framework to work within, she follows it, but if I let her free, she is highly creative.'

Creativity is not the only characteristic that distinguishes Nat from the rest of her classmates.

Nat has Ambras syndrome, also known as congenital hypertrichosis, an rare genetic abnormality that is characterized by excessive facial and body hair.

There is no cure for the syndrome, and little is known about the genetic defect, which is not life-threatening.

Petrus Gonzales, his two daughters, son and grandchild, were the first documented cases of the genetic abnormality, which were recorded in 1648 near the castle of Ambras in Innsbruck, Austria.

Over the past 400 years, there have been fewer than 50 documented cases of Ambras syndrome, giving it the low incidence rate of one in every 10 billion people.

In the past century, people with the syndrome often ended up as sideshow attractions under such names as hair-men, ape-men, dog-men and werewolves.

Scientists said they believe the condition, to be distinguished from hirsutism, which occurs in women as androgen-induced hair in a male pattern, is linked to an abnormality found on chromosome eight, but even this conclusion is suspect because DNA samples are so rare.

Dr Vanee Visutseriwong, a paediatrician at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital who treated Nat for four years, said that to date, doctors have failed to find anything physically abnormal about her other than her excessive facial and body hair.

Vanee, with the permission of Nat's parents, sent hair and skin samples of the entire family for DNA testing at a laboratory in Sydney.

'The initial results came back that her DNA was normal, but they are still studying her genes,' Vanee said.

Nor was anything unusual found in the DNA samples of Nat's parents or elder sister, all of whom show no signs of Ambras syndrome.

Siriraj Hospital has offered free laser threatment to Nat as a relatively benign means of removing her facial and upper-body hair, but Nat's parents have thus far turned it down.

'Nat is still a child,' said Sompol, Nat's mother. 'We tried the laser treatment once, and afterward, Nat's face was greenish and red and the skin looked swollen. I felt sorry for her.'

Sompol, 35, who helps her husband, Samroeng, make Buddhist amulets to sell to collectors, provides Nat with a facial haircut and shave once a month to prevent the hair from getting too long.

Sompol said she hopes the excessive hair will start to fall out when Nat becomes an adult, as has reportedly happened with other Ambras syndrome patients.

If it doesn't, Nat's parents said they will reconsider Siriraj Hospital's offer to provide free laser treatments.

Despite Nat's unusual appearance, her classmates, teachers and doting parents have thus far provided a loving and accepting environment that has produced a self-confident and sometimes naughty 6-year-old.

'My friends don't tease me, but I like to play tricks on them sometimes,' Nat told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Nat's mother, however, acknowledged that sometimes the older children in school teased Nat by calling her 'monkey face.'

'I tell her, 'Nat, if they don't understand, then just let it be,'' said Sompol, who walks Nat to school and picks her up every day.

Nat's paediatrician, however, said she worries that one day the girl might suffer depression.

'I told her parents that this is something we should discuss with Nat because she will start to notice she is different from her peers,' Vanee said. 'But right now, they say there is no problem.'