Powerlifter Daphne Lavatory on dwelling with vitiligo and discovering confidence

Professor Steven Thng Tien Guan, deputy director of National Skin Centre (NSC), has these insights on vitiligo:

Cause: Vitiligo is an autoimmune illness – white blood cells assault and destroy the pores and skin’s melanocytes (pigment-producing cells), resulting in white patches on the pores and skin. Genetics might predispose people to vitiligo. It can be triggered by damage to the pores and skin, stress and sunburn.

Prevalence: In Asia, round seven in a 1,000 individuals have vitiligo.

Treatment: 70 to 80 per cent of sufferers can regain pores and skin color with the fitting therapy.

Treatment contains oral and topical medicines that suppress the immune system, stop the white patches from spreading, and scale back irritation to help re-pigmentation.

A brand new topical ruxolitinib cream that helps repigmentation can be pending full regulatory approvals in Singapore. It has already been authorized within the United States, Europe and Hong Kong. 

NSC is conducting a real-world examine in Singapore, the most important such examine in Southeast Asia, to guage its security and efficacy for the Asian inhabitants. The ruxolitinib cream is obtainable to vitiligo sufferers for this NSC examine through a particular entry route. Interested sufferers might contact NSC straight, or through a polyclinic or CHAS GP referral, from which they are going to be assessed for suitability.

Other therapy choices embrace phototherapy, exposing depigmented pores and skin to managed doses of ultraviolet gentle to stimulate pigment manufacturing; and grafting, a brief, day surgical procedure the place wholesome pigment cells are transplanted from the affected person’s personal pores and skin to affected areas to revive pigmentation.