Patients who have uneven skin tone with those white spots in certain areas may sign to many diseases such as Vitiligo, leprosy, Pityriasis Alba, leukemia, tinea, or some people may use several chemical substances like steroid which cause this problem to the skin for that reason diagnosis which is done to detect and categorize type of each disease is essential for a right and targeted treatment.
What is Vitiligo? And what cause the disease?
The vitiligo is a disease in which the body produces substance to destroy Melanocyte cells , a pigment-producing cell that is called Melanin, the Melanin determines our skin color, eye color and hair color. When the cells are destroyed, the skin color then becomes uneven with white spots in different areas cause of symptoms may due to heredity or chronic allergic condition such as SLE, thyroid, diabetes, anemia and scleroderma.
Observation for Vitiligo risk
Basic observation for the Vitiligo starts by looking at the white spots they will have strong white color together with edge line showing a circle shape of the spot clearly and if you are uncertain about the disease, it is better to receive proper treatment or diagnosis from a specialized doctor in case if that is not a right understanding and lit could be symptoms link to another skin diseases.
Is Vitiligo contagious?
The Vitiligo is noninfectious means that it will not communicate or spread to others via touching unless through heredity.
How the Vitiligo can be treated?
The first treatment is applying medical cream on the skin next is receiving radiation therapy or integrating both approaches together. Today, for the radiation therapy/ selective phototherapy there is radiation equipment called Excimer308 which is artificial solar phototherapy using ultraviolet B under 308 frequency according to recent research said that wavelength at 308 provides effective treatment result and side effect and when the radiation touches lesion immunity system thus will start to change.
The Excimer 308 can cure both Vitiligo and skin diseases such as Psoriasis in fact, result will be great and effective which does not harm the skin as well.
Preparation before receiving treatment using Excimer 308
Before having treatment in order to measure the most optimal energy level for this selective phototherapy patients have to receive MED Test (Minimal Erythematous Dose) moreover, a procedure is only performed at the area where disease is found while normal skin/ area will be covered by equipment as a result it will not cause any side effect that harm the normal skin.
How long does it take the Excimer308 to process?
Time for phototherapy depends on how wide the area of lesion is during the first period of treatment patients should come receive it 2-3 times a week and when the symptoms improve they then are able to space sometime regarding conditions.
Can Vitiligo be cured?
The cause of Vitiligo still remains unknown however according to assumption, scientifically the disease associates with heredity like allergy so it may become incurable. Furthermore, by 50 percent in general the Vitiligo still can reach remission stage in long term and whenever it reoccurs seeing a doctor would be a proper way to restart its treatment process once again.
How should we take care of ourselves after the treatment ?
After the treatment, patients will not feel burnt and cream such as sunscreen can still be applied; at the same time, wearing extra pieces of apparel to cover the skin will not be needed and if there is feeling of itchiness please do not scratch an area additionally being scratched by things should always be prevented. Moreover, patients should look after their health conditions mainly for example having enough sleep, eating healthy foods, doing exercise or forgetting about things that stress in head and more importantly putting on sunscreen daily to prevent risk of skin cancer as well as avoiding sunlight exposure.
What will happen if we ignore the Vitiligo treatment?
As we know, the disease is not that harmful only the white color of the skin that could be much brighter than the rest skin’s area some people think it may affect their appearance or beauty however despite being harmless we still recommend the patients to put on sunscreen and since there is a risk for the skin cancer please also avoid being exposed by sunlight directly without protection
Which group of patients should specifically be more careful during the treatment?
- A pregnant mother or a mother during her breastfeeding period
- HIV and SLE patient
- Patients with Hyperthyroidism
- Patients with Pacemaker
- Patient who receive light-sensitive medicine
- Patients with skin cancer
