Media Release

Udupi, Jun 23: Kasturba Hospital, Manipal will observe World Vitiligo Day on June 25.

Special vitiligo treatment packages will be offered to patients from June 25 to June 30.

Vitiligo is a condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of skin, causing white patches, often with no clear cause. Vitiligo affects the 10-30 age group. This disease affects all races and is affected in the same proportion for men and women.

Over 10 crore people in the world are affected by vitiligo. Human body’s immune system sees melanocyte pigment cells in the skin as foreign bodies and attacks them, which results in vitiligo. Dr Sathish Pai B, professor and head of the Department of Dermatology, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, said that depression, anxiety, social embrassment and self-consciousness caused by vitiligo are common. There are many incidents of discrimination at work and other difficulties faced by such patients.

“There are many treatment options for patients with vitiligo. It is important to seek help of a skin specialist at the earliest. The disease is not at all contagious and hence people with vitiligo need not be isolated.”

On 'World Vitiligo Day' Kasturba Hospital, Manipal will conduct consultation with specialists free of cost and special treatment packages for one week starting from June 25 to June 30 announced Dr Avinash Shetty, medical superintendent, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. “Kasturba Hospital is one of the hospitals which has advanced phototherapy treatment facility he added.