Ahead of Vitiligo Awareness Day, which will be marked on Thursday, Israeli skin specialist Dr. Mor Pavlovsky described a disease whose cause remains unclear but whose impact reaches far beyond the skin. She spoke about the condition, current research, and its psychological consequences.
Pavlovsky, director of dermatology clinics and head of the vitiligo and pigmentation disorders clinic at Tel Aviv Medical Center, said vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the cells that produce skin color. The result is white patches on different parts of the body. She noted that it mostly affects young people, with a median onset age of 20, and usually appears on exposed areas, especially the hands, around the eyes and around the mouth. Because it is so visible, she said, it is especially hard for patients to live with.
She said the best-known patient with vitiligo is Michael Jackson, and estimated that about 45,000 people in Israel live with the condition. Some have only a small, barely noticeable patch, while others see the white areas spread over many years. In very rare cases, pigment loss affects the entire body. The cause of the disease, and why it mainly strikes young people, is still unknown.
Pavlovsky said there are now treatments that can help the body restore color, including ointments, pills and similar therapies. In the past, the assumption was that there was no effective treatment and only cosmetic camouflage was available. Since 2022, however, new drugs have offered a slow but real chance of improvement, and she hopes they will eventually be added to the health basket. She said the response time varies from person to person because skin-cell growth is slow.
She also said vitiligo affects clothing choices, job choices, beach visits and social relationships, and that many patients develop anxiety and depression. Asked about unconventional treatments, she said she does not reject complementary therapies, but only as additions rather than replacements, and warned that the field is full of charlatans and people with financial interests.
