ISSN: 2574-7800
Authors: Aisha BA Eltrabulsi, Azza SH Griew, Ali M Gargoom, Ghada A Taeib, Hala Triki and Gamal A Duweb*
Background: Vitiligo is a common disease with autoimmune etiology. The chronic nature of disease, long term treatment, lack of uniform effective therapy and unpredictable course of disease is usually very demoralizing for patients suffering from vitiligo. Aim of the study: To review the demographic data among Libyan vitiligo patients. Patients and methods: 150 patients above the age of 16 years attended vitiligo clinic in Al Jamhoria hospital; Benghazi -Libya during the period of one year were exposed to detailed disease history and thorough dermatological examination. Results: Our study showed that slightly higher proportion of vitiligo in females (61.3%) as compared to males (38.7%). The mean age for patients was 34year and mean duration was 10 years. Positive family history elicited in (26%) of patients and stress was the commonest aggravating factor which represent (84%). Clinically, vitiligo vulgaris represent the commonest morphological pattern(35%), nearly half of patients (48%) had the disease in both exposed and unexposed sites, 39% had the disease on exposed site and only 13% had the disease on unexposed sites. Two third of patients (65%) had severe lesions (more than 10). Majority of patients (89%) had no associated disease. About 10 % had either diabetes or hypothyroidism or both. Conclusion: This study showed that vitiligo constitute a major health problem, it has more female predominance, Stress is the most common etiological factor and exposed body sites are frequently involved.
Keywords: Vitiligo; Autoimmunity; Epidemiology; Libya
