World Vitiligo Day 2021: Embracing Life With Vitiligo

The eleventh annual World Vitiligo Day (WVD) is marked on June 25th, with Indonesia playing the host country. The theme for 2021 is 'Embracing Life with Vitiligo’. Another key theme for 2021 - patients with vitiligo have the same COVID experience as anybody else and should not fear vaccination. Each year WVD has become a bigger and bigger event, now with vitiligo sufferers, their families, caregivers, and physicians making an effort to talk and create awareness about the disease, raise money for research, give free skin exams, and educate doctors on how to best take care of patients with vitiligo.

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The Beginning

Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation (VITSAF) in Nigeria started the idea of activists conducting Vitiligo Purple Fun Day at the shopping mall on June 25th 2011. It was celebrated in memory of late King of Pop Michael Jackson, who suffered from vitiligo and died on 25th June 2009.

The vision is to bring this ‘forgotten disease’ into the public eye by raising awareness, portraying its true nature, and debunking common vitiligo myths.

Later, Vitiligo Research Foundation (VRF) based in New York, USA joined this campaign to make it a truly global affair leading to the foundation of World Vitiligo Day, celebrated every year on June 25th.

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About Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a skin disease that causes the skin to lighten in patches across the face and body. It is an unpredictable, non-communicable, autoimmune skin disease that affects between 0.5% to 2% of the world population. Children born to both parents having the autoimmune skin disease are more likely to develop vitiligo.

• Vitiligo develops at all ages but usually occurs in young people between the ages of 10 and 30 years.
• 25% of vitiligo patients develop the disease before the age of 10 years
• 50% of vitiligo patients develop the disease before the age of 20 years and

Nearly 70–80% of patients develop vitiligo before the age of 30 years

Psychological stress is the most frequently reported trigger for vitiligo. Severe sunburn, physical skin damage, prolonged contact with certain chemicals and hormonal changes may induce or worsen vitiligo.

Vitiligo patients try to restore pigmentation, camouflage the white patches, or destroy the remaining color to have all-white skin, but there is no permanent cure.

A pioneering company has recently launched a new and effective treatment for white patches. As well as stopping new white patches from developing, the repigmenting cream also helps restores the pigment to the affected areas. The burden of vitiligo is felt by developing countries due to misdiagnosis of the disease, little or no access to effective treatments, and widespread stigmatization and discrimination.

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The Future

World Vitiligo Day (WVD) is now a major part of the calendar for the estimated 100 million people across the world who suffer from vitiligo.

The success of this campaign is driven by Aksenov Family Foundation ensuring that WVD is a global force hearing voices of vitiligo patients to get the attention the disease deserves.

Huge progress in developing vitiligo drugs is attributed to WVD’s success. Recently U.S. FDA held its very first public meeting on vitiligo with key stakeholders in vitiligo drug development, and six more U.S. State governors and numerous city mayors declared June as ‘Vitiligo Awareness Month’.

In 2020, the WVD international headquarters continues its international journey moving to Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia.

However, WVD should work more to persuade major organizations such as the UN and WHO to give vitiligo the attention it deserves and instil change in the national healthcare policies of member states.

Organizers are also looking to the big pharmaceutical companies to introduce more products that satisfy the growing demand for effective treatments to end the hurt and find a cure for vitiligo.

Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions in person activities that typify WVD are not possible this year so online events will occur. Broadcast from various offices of the dermatological society, invites patients, doctors, volunteers, journalists and anyone who is interested to drop in and learn more.

Dietary Tips to Help Manage and Prevent Vitiligo from Worsening

As per the Vitiligo Support International, people with vitiligo could lack healthy levels of specific nutrients. Here are some diet tips that may help treat vitiligo:

• Drinking plenty of water helps improve the immune system
• Increasing the intake of fruits and green leafy vegetables
• Restricting the intake of anti-inflammatory foods (alcohol, processed meats etc) to prevent the production of white patches
• Consuming foods rich in vitamins B, C, folic acid, copper, zinc can help stop white patches

References:

1. World Vitiligo Day - (https://vrfoundation.org/wvd)
2. 2021 Virtual World Vitiligo Day Event - (https://www.myvitiligoteam.com/resources/2021-virtual-world-vitiligo-day-event)
3. Vitiligo Foundation - (https://globalvitiligofoundation.org/)
4. Bella Aurora launches its first treatment for white patches on the skin - (https://www.prnewswire.com/pl/komunikat-prasowy/bella-aurora-launches-its-first-treatment-for-white-patches-on-the-skin-840208659.html)
5. Vitiligo Society - (https://vitiligosociety.org/living-with-vitiligo/)

Source-Medindia