SINGAPORE – Senior lecturer Malini Thyagesan used to dislike having her photograph taken and would be upset when people pulled their children away from her.
But she has now come to accept her skin condition, called vitiligo.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks skin pigment cells, turning a person’s skin white due to the loss of pigment, or melanin.
The incurable condition is hereditary but may skip generations, can affect any age group and can flare up due to stress, trauma and injury to the skin. It is not contagious.
Those afflicted, like Ms Malini, often experience self-esteem issues at the onset of the condition. But some have learnt to accept it.
Ms Malini was eight years old when she first noticed that something was not right after a tree branch hit her eye. The accident left a white patch on her eyelid.
Her parents, neither of whom has any family history of the condition, dismissed it as a healing wound.
But six years later, as 20 per cent of her body became covered in white patches, her parents took her to see a dermatologist.
“I could still cover them up by wearing long sleeves or heavy make-up. But there was always one thing that was constantly ringing in my head when I looked in the mirror: Ugly, ugly, ugly,” the 44-year-old, who teaches at Republic Polytechnic’s School of Applied Science, told The Straits Times.
Ms Malini resorted to using topical steroid cream to tame the pale patches, but more patches appeared. Frustrated, she decided at age 16 to forgo any sort of treatment altogether.
Dr Goh Boon Kee, a dermatologist at Skin Physicians in Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, who sees about 100 vitiligo patients a month, said that the common concern among patients is their appearance, especially when the white patches appear on exposed parts of their body like the face and limbs.
The National Skin Centre did not respond to ST’s queries regarding what proportion of Singaporeans suffer from vitiligo and how many seek treatment for their condition, although researchers estimate that it affects around 1 per cent of the world’s population.
Notable vitiligo sufferers include American pop star Michael Jackson, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and fashion model Winnie Harlow, but the condition is still not widely understood.
Ms Malini said that people often think she had suffered serious burns, “or worse, that I have a contagious disease”, she said with a laugh. She has discovered that using Jackson as a reference when explaining her condition to others helps.