What Is Vitiligo?

What is vitiligo? 

Key points 

• Vitiligo is a pigmentary disorder resulting in typically asymptomatic white macules that can appear any time  during human life and can be psychologically devastating. 

• It occurs in all skin types and at all ages and with equal frequencies between men and women. 

• Vitiligo is considered to be an autoimmune disease with underlying genetic predisposition in majority of cases. 

• Vitiligo is not caused by poor medical care. 

• Personal behavior or state of mind may play an important role in the disease management. 

• Vitiligo is never a contagious disease, but infective agents may apparently play an indirect role in some cases. 

• Vitiligo is not related to wrong diets, but correct diet may help. 

• Vitiligo seems not to be directly related to pollution, but the environment plays a major role in vitiligo  development. 

• Vitiligo is not clearly genetically transmitted. 

• Progression of the disease can be halted in about 90% of cases, if requested. 

• A cure is not yet known for each and every case, but adequate medical and /or surgical therapies may treat  satisfactorily over 75% of the affected subjects. 

• Be optimistic! It is not true that there is nothing to do for vitiligo. In fact, just the opposite is true and research  is going on all over the world to find the cure for vitiligo. 

Answer 

Vitiligo is an acquired sudden loss of the  inherited skin color. Despite its long recognition,  the cause of this disorder is still unknown. The  loss of skin color yields white patches of various  sizes, which can be localized anywhere on the  body. The disease affects people of all races, men  and women, and all age groups. It may appear at  any age; cases have been reported as early as 6  weeks after birth and after 80 years of age. 

Vitiligo is not a contagious disease. Vitiligo can  be rarely tolerated, being more often a  psychologically devastating disease, especially in  darker skinned individuals, in whom it is more  easily noticeable. The actual cause of vitiligo is  under debate and has been attributed to  autoimmune causes, oxidative stress, and/or a  neurogenic disturbance. These terms will be  explained later on. 

In other terms, vitiligo is a skin and/or mucosal  disorder characterized by white patches, often, but  not always, symmetrical, which usually increase in  size with time, corresponding to a substantial loss  of functioning epidermal and sometimes hair  follicle melanocytes. It may occur in a unilateral  distribution or may be generalized. 

Vitiligo lesions may rarely itch and have a high  propensity to sunburn. Vitiligo is a chronic  persistent and often progressive disorder;  spontaneous repigmentation is uncommon and  usually occurs around the hairs in a perifollicular  pattern. Many patients are poorly educated about  their illness. In one study, 51.3% of patients  believed that their vitiligo was caused by poor  medical care, 30% thought personal behavior  played a major role, 25% - wrong diet, 21.3% -  altered state of mind, and 20% blamed only  pollution or environmental alterations. 

All the believes mentioned above are  considered by the scientific community to be “per  se” unfounded and misleading, even if all of them  may bring some true indications for understanding  the disease and for finding the cure.

Vitiligo is a disease that presently cannot be  cured, but still can be treated successfully with  many different approaches. Its progression can be  halted in almost 90% of cases with appropriate  therapy, most frequently by combining different  treatments. More than 75% of subjects affected by  vitiligo respond satisfactorily to active treatments  (medical UVB Lamp 311nm 308nm or surgical). 

Thus, it is not true that there is nothing to do  for vitiligo. In fact, just the opposite is true.