1st Annual meeting of Vitiligo Academy of India and 2nd VITLICON, an International two day Conference on Vitiligo were organized by Dermatological Society of India here today. Inaugurating the Conference, Dr. Rajeev Bindal, Health and Family Welfare Minister said that Vitiligo is a skin disease having impact on the quality of life of patients. The chronic nature of disease, long term treatment, lack of uniform effective therapy and unpredictable course of disease was usually demoralizing patients suffering from vitiligo. It is important to recognize and deal with psychological components of this disease and to obtain a better treatment response for which social awareness should be important.
Dr. Bindal said that health was one of the priorities of the Government as it was committed to ensure better heath care facilities at the door steps of the people besides providing specialized medical service to the people. He said that Government had implemented various ambitious schemes like ‘Atal Swasthya Sewa’, ‘Matri Sewa’, Pt. Deen Dayal Aushadh Sewa’, ‘Mukhya Mantri Vidhyarthi Swasthaya Karyakram, ‘Health Insurance Scheme’. He said that the health indices of the State were among the best in the country and continues to improve due to the sustained efforts made by the State Government during the last four years.
Health and Family Welfare Minister have appreciated the efforts made by Dermatology Society to organize the Conference on pigment disease. He said that the Conference would go a long way to cover a wide array of topics of pigmentary disorders and update on the latest advances in the field Vitiligo research. The experiences of international and National experts in the field would be beneficial not only to medical professionals but the patients suffering from vitiligo.
He said that there was a need to develop consensus on various existing issues in understanding the pathogenesis and treatment of vitiligo and to associate with other international vitiligo research societies and experts for exchange of ideas. He also stressed to develop relationship and interaction with patient forums to create awareness through community participation.
In inaugural session, Dr. Mauro Picardo gave his presentation on Vitiligo as possible auto-inflamatory disease. Dr. Khaled Ezzedine, Dr. Salafia Antonio and Dr. S.Gupta also presented their research papers on important issues.
In closing session, Dr. Caroline Le Poole gave his presentation on designing a roadblock for immune activation in vitiligo, while Dr. Naveen Krishna Tarur presented his research paper on Socio-Legal Engineering to Improve Quality of Life of Vitiligo Patients. 250 delegates from India and abroad participated in the Conference
