Danger level: low

What is it?

Vitiligo is a disease in which there are patches of white skin. 

Who gets it?

It happens to 1-2% of people worldwide. About 30% of those have a family member with the disease.

Vitiligo usually appears in the ages 10-30.

What causes it?

As mentioned in the melanoma article, our skin is composed of layers of cells. Melanocytes is the name of one type of cells in our skin, and they are responsible for creating a pigment, or color material, which gives our skin color and which is also responsible for the color we get when we tan.

For unknown reasons, in vitiligo the melanocytes are destroyed. This might be related to an autoimmune process, meaning that the body’s immune system attacks the body instead of intruders. In this case it attacks the melanocytes. (We have talked about other autoimmune diseases here before, like lupus and Graves disease).

How does it feel?

It looks like white patches on the skin. It can range from one or two patches to areas covering a large part of the body. It’s most remarkable in people with dark skin (in fact, Michael Jackson claims his white skin is a result of vitiligo. Also, Lee Thomas, an anchor for Fox confessed in 2007 to having vitiligo).

A hand of a woman with vitiligo (Photo by Produnis).

These patches can grow, shrink or not change at all. They usually appear in a symmetrical way, on both sides of the body.

Maybe the main problem is the psychological affect it can have on patients, especially in dark skinned people.

How is it discovered?

Usually the looks of the skin are enough for the doctor to know it’s vitiligo. Sometimes, to make sure, the doctor might perform a biopsy (cut a small piece) of the skin or look at the skin under a special lamp called a “Wood’s lamp”.

How is it treated?

There is no cure for vitiligo: there are treatments that might help with the skin appearance, but the underlying process in the body will still happen. In some cases, the color may return by itself.

Treatments that can be tried include steroid creams, drugs that weaken the immune system (which, as said above, attacks the body here), or simply applying makeup to darken the area.

Exposure to UV light (same as the light produced by the sun) in a doctor’s office can cause the melanocytes not destroyed to produce the pigment and can help.

Skin grafting can also be used if areas of skin don’t respond to the above treatments (even melanocytes alone have been implanted successfully). Another option is skin bleaching, in order to give the skin an even color throughout (this is irreversible).

What happens after treatment?

Like mentioned here, there is no cure for vitiligo. While in some patients the color may return by itself, the process in most people is still there.

Unfortunately, there is no known way to prevent vitiligo.

What next?

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