Born Mabinty Bangura in 1995, Michaela DePrince had many identities. One of them was “devil’s child” thanks to her vitiligo. Michaela grew up as an orphan in Sierra Leone during the civil war.
Her life was difficult from the start, with her father killed by militant rebels and her mother dying of starvation. Frequently malnourished, mistreated and derided, life only got worse when she had to flee to a refugee camp after her orphanage was bombed.
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Brazil not only has one of the world’s highest levels of biodiversity, but also it has an under-used repertoire of plants with potential medicinal and economic value. Ethnopharmacological information represents a great shortcut in the search for new effective therapies. We investigated the activity of leaves and flowers of Pyrostegia Venusta in order to support its use in traditional medicine for vitiligo treatment. Read more
– See more at: http://vrfoundation.org/announcements/177#sthash.fXGX3QSD.dpuf
OVERVIEW OF VITILIGO RESEARCH April – June 2015
Contents
Reviews
&
Comments
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Disease
Management
And
Clinical
Features
………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Epidemiology
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
Comorbidi@es
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5
Quality
of
life
(QoL)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
Vi@ligo
triggers
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Case
reports
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
Understanding
mechanisms
of
vi@ligo
pathogenesis
…………………………………………………………………………………………6
Gene@c
studies
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6
Candidate
biomarkers
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7
Mechanisms
of
treatments
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7
Methodological
advancements
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7
Novel
treatment
modali@es
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8
Clinical
studies
and
trials
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8
Reviewed
and
prepared
by:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
About
Journal
Of
Pigmentary
Disorders
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
Most of health insurance companies will initially reject claims for vitiligo doctor visits or phototherapy treatments but with enough efforts you can have a substantial part of related expenses covered by insurance.
Have your dermatologist write a letter to the insurance company. Your doctor should explain heavy psychological effects and socio-ecomonic burden of vitiligo, like a substantial loss of income because of regular phototherapy sessions during clinic’s regular working hours or missed school time. It should also mention the risks of vitiligo, such as serious sunburn.
Send your personal letter to the health insurance approval department, explaining the devastating effects of vitiligo on your life. You could emphasize the same aspects as your doctor but from a more personal point of view. Explain how it has affected you socially and emotionally and mention any occasion in which your may have suffered from sunburn, if this has been the case. Follow up with phone calls and any supporting evidence.
Most insurance companies will eventually provide you with coverage for narrow-band (NB-UVB) phototherapy (however, not for laser therapy.)
A Medicare rebate applies to a percentage of the consultation cost, please ask your physician for a referral to a dermatologist. Narrow band phototherapy is fully covered by Medicare with no additional costs to the patient.
Insurance companies have defined each disease by a diagnosis code. Mention the ICD-9 code 709.01 when you call or write to them in order to speed up the process.
– See more at: http://vrfoundation.org/faq_items/23#sthash.GMOyGCFL.dpuf
World Vitiligo Day 2015: over 500,000 petitions! A heavy box with more than 10,000 leaflets is on it’s way from campaign headquarters in Shenyang (China) to our office. Huge thanks to Prof. Xing-Hua Gao and Prof. Yan Wu and their amazing team of doctors and volunteers for helping us to accomplish this ambitious task. Read report and see photos from celebrations in China here.
– See more at: http://vrfoundation.org/announcements/174#sthash.5lEF5pa5.dpuf
The nineteen-year-old Winnie Harlow is the living proof that you can still be enormously beautiful with a disorder. Winnie has the skin disease vitiligo, but this does not stop her to achieve her dream: becoming a supermodel. She is proud of herself and with that confidence she is the first model with vitiligo. Big fashion brands Diesel and Disigual already roped her for campaigns. She is working hard on her way to the top. Thanks to her positive attitude Winnie is a great inspiration for all her fans and other young girls with vitiligo or another disorder.
“I accepted how God has made me; original. I am as I should be.” – Winnie Harlow
ABSTRACT
Observations Recent advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of vitiligo suggest that Janus kinase inhibitors may be a therapeutic option. We report a case of generalized vitiligo for which treatment with tofacitinib citrate, an oral Janus kinase 1/3 inhibitor, resulted in significant repigmentation.
Conclusions and Relevance The results suggest that tofacitinib and other Janus kinase inhibitors may be effective in the treatment of vitiligo. Additional studies will be needed to confirm their efficacy and to explore their safety.
VRFoundation 