Vitiligo is a multifactorial skin disease in which a faulty immune reaction attacks and kills off pigment cells known as melanocytes. The aftermath of the massacre leaves behind patches of white skin.
Even though it has been known about for at least 5000 years, little has been done to understand its causes or to evaluate possible treatments as it is not a painful or immediately life-threatening condition.
As someone who currently has various depigmented patches of skin running across my elbows, back and ankles, I have firsthand experience of the profound psychological and social impact it has on people diagnosed with the skin disease.
A (not-so) brief introduction to the pigmentation assassin
The disease often emerges in adolescence or later and is roughly estimated to affect ~1% of the general population — lucky me! It also seems highly likely that vitiligo is inherited: while the risk of a patient’s sibling later developing the disease is 6%, the percentage almost quadruples when it comes to an identical twin — a whopping 23%.
Oh, ancestors, what have you done to me?
In symmetrical vitiligo, the depigmented areas usually appear on both sides of the body equally and are often — you guessed it — symmetrical. The commonly affected areas include the face (especially around the eyes and mouth), hands and body creases (armpits and groins including genitals). For patients diagnosed with segmental vitiligo, white patches occur only on one side of the body.
But it’s important to note that the pigmentation assassins work in strange ways and depigmentation can occur literally anywhere on the body.
Vitiligo is considered an autoimmune disorder as patients and their relatives have an increased risk of developing other autoimmune diseases, such as autoimmune thyroiditis and type 1 diabetes.
