On the occasion of the commemoration on June 25, World Vitiligo Day (a disease that causes depigmentation in patches of the skin), people with vitiligo, some personalities including the Director General of the WHO, gave voice by way of awareness and testimony to provide advice, arouse hope and help patients and the community to know and understand how to live with vitiligo.
In the DRC, Dr Freddy Banza Mutoka, administrator within the Franco-Congolese Association of Vitiligo, also affected by the disease, first explained this disease: “Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease which leads to the depigmentation of the skin, following a disorder of melanin, these are pigments that give the black color to the skin. This disease affects 1% to 2% of the population”.
It then gives a message:
“The message I give is that people with vitiligo must accept themselves in this skin and consider that it is not inevitable. We will have to live with the disease, it is not a curse either”.
Dr. Freddy Banza Mutoka goes on to urge the community not to stigmatize people with vitiligo.
“To society and those around us, we want to say that vitiligo is not contagious and consider the color as normal and look at us differently. We must compliment our own with small positive messages and that is why we are going to organize an awareness campaign for a plea of recognition…”, he urged.
According to him, there is a lot of progress being made for treatment and a drug has just been validated in Europe and it is giving good results.
Every year on June 25, World Vitiligo Day is observed with the aim of increasing health and education efforts against this skin condition and raising awareness of the social stigma and mental issues facing people. affected by vitiligo.