Bengaluru: “People say I can’t get married as my children may get this disease too,” says 30-year-old Naseema, who is undergoing phototherapy for vitiligo, an unpredictable, generally progressive disease, resulting in a loss of inherited skin colour , at the Bowring hospital in the city.
“We see some 70 to 80 patients suffering from vitiligo every day in the OPD and of them around five are new,” revealed Dr Leelavathy, head of the department of dermatology at the Bowring Medical College and Research Institute(BMCRI).
Sadly, more than the disease, those with vitiligo, need to fight the stigma attached to it. “People need to be made aware that it is not leprosy and also not contagious. Patients can get married and lead a good life,” the doctor added, regretting that patients and their families had to constantly battle the social stigma attached to the disease. Explaining that the disease is caused by destruction of melanin, a pigment formed by melanocytes present in the epidermis, she says the loss of this pigment causes the light coloured patches.
"It affects the patients psychologically and so we constantly assure them to be positive," the doctor said. While she and her team ran an awareness campaign on Saturday to educate patients and their families about vitiligo, she believes more such camps are necessary to unify and inspire the vitiligo community.
