This Saturday, June 1, 2019 is the 5th National Eczema Day, organized in the Paris region by the French Eczema Association. The opportunity to take stock of a skin disease that concerns 2.5 million French people.
In the space of 30 years, the number of affected patients has tripled in industrialized countries. In France, eczema more frequently affects women (5.92% of French women are affected) than men (3.32%).
Among the 2.5 million French people affected by eczema (i.e. all the same 5% of the national population!), 15% are babies under 1 year old, 20% are children under 7 years old and 18% are children aged 7 to 16. Finally, it should be noted that 100,000 patients suffer from severe eczema.
There are 3 forms of eczema: atopic eczema or atopic dermatitis (AD) which is linked to a genetic abnormality of the skin barrier, chronic hand eczema (CME) which can be caused and/or aggravated by products household, cold or heat, and allergic contact eczema which occurs when the skin comes into contact with an allergen (nickel, chromium, rubber, etc.).
Eczema, a “shame” for 82% of patients
According to a study conducted by the Association Française de l’Eczéma and Reso Eczéma between 2017 and 2018 with 280 patients, 85% of patients report having difficulty cooking, washing, applying makeup or shaving: eczema is a daily handicap. Worse: 92% of patients often feel “embarrassed by the looks of others” and 82% even feel a sense of shame – moreover, 86% of patients manage to hide their hands…
“There is still no reliable treatment to permanently restore the faulty skin barrier and therefore completely cure eczema, reacts Pr. Jean-David Bouaziz, dermatologist. Remember that this is a chronic disease. Nevertheless, I am optimistic because very promising new treatments will soon be available. Even if all the molecules will not be effective in all patients, a varied therapeutic arsenal will soon be accessible to relieve patients.”
Source : press release Association Française de l’Eczéma.
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