Eczema Awareness Month

This October Eczema Awareness Month, groups and advocates from across the healthcare landscape are taking action to raise awareness for patients living with eczema and severe atopic dermatitis. Millions of Americans suffer from the burden of this disease, and this month presents an opportunity to help tell the story of the unmet medical need they continue to face. 

Here are a few helpful resources that can be used to raise awareness:

Eczema Matters
Eczema Matters is a central resource with up-to-date information on treatments, patient stories, therapy breakthroughs and more. 

Eczema Resource Center
Eczema Resource Center discusses the types of eczema/dermatitis with detail on symptoms, causes, treatment, and tips on how to manage eczema.

Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) Resource
Atopic Dermatitis Resources provides an overview of eczema, from symptoms of eczema, how it is diagnosed, and treatment and management of eczema. It also features a link to a Asthma and Allergies Symptom Test.

Eczema in Children
Eczema in Children provides information on how eczema affects children.

Eczema Exposed
Eczema Exposed features a discussion guide to help start a conversation with a provider and a tool that helps you find a dermatologist or allergist in your area.

Overcoming Barriers to Dermatological Treatment White Paper
“Overcoming Barriers to Dermatological Treatment” that dives into various skin conditions (including eczema) and how it is difficult for patients to obtain treatment.

About Eczema
About Eczema site that features information on eczema, how to identify it, typical treatments, environmental risks, and other common issues.

Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) Page
About Eczema site provides helpful overview about what eczema is and how to identify it.

Webinar Wednesdays
Webinar Wednesdays: Ongoing educational webinars with world-class medical experts discussing the latest in disease management, research, treatments and related information you need to live well with eczema.

Why Patients with Skin Conditions Can’t Get Treated

Tens of millions of people across the United States are affected by skin conditions, but not all of them can access the doctors and medications they need.  So explains a new white paper from the Derma Care Access Network, an advocacy group that encourages informed policy on access to dermatological care.

As “Overcoming Barriers to Dermatological Treatment” explains, skin conditions vary from the cosmetic to the deadly. The paper calls out in particular:

  • Atopic dermatitis (commonly known as eczema), which affects more than 30 million Americans
  • Psoriasis, which affects 7.5 million
  • Acne, which affects as many as 50 million people
  • Chronic urticarial, which causes red, itchy welts, and which affects 15-20% of the population
  • Skin cancer, the most common cancer in the United States, which affects 5.4 million people and has an estimated 9,500 diagnoses every day.

Patients with skin conditions may also have comorbidities such as chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes, renal disease and rheumatic disease.  But obtaining treatment can be difficult.

Read more at Institute for Patient Access. 

The Psoriasis Wish List

From Practical Dermatology

Eight biologic drugs (not to mention three biosimilars) are currently approved to treat psoriasis and there is a greater understanding within the medical community that this disease goes more than skin deep. We are nearing a tipping point, but even with all this progress, still more is needed to improve the quality of life for the 7.5 million people in the United States who live with this disease.

Practical Dermatology® asked some thought leaders to share what they wish for to further advance care of these patients.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE from Practical Dermatology.

The Allergic March – Is It Possible to Prevent Allergies and Asthma?

AAT Winter 2016 - The Allergic March_Page_2.jpg
 

Katie Kastan was worried. Her infant daughter Lucy was unusually fussy and having trouble falling asleep. One pediatrician wrote off her concerns as typical new mother paranoia.

Then Katie, who lives in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, noticed Lucy’s skin was red and itchy – eczema.

Lucy was showing signs that suggest early allergic disease.

In young children, allergies often first express themselves as eczema. The skin condition can also be associated with food allergies, ear infections, allergic rhinitis and asthma – the so-called allergic march.

Katie brought Lucy to an allergist for testing after she later showed signs of food allergies. The allergist found Lucy has peanut and dairy allergies. Soon after Katie was found to be allergic to pollen and dogs. “If she gets licked by a dog, she breaks out in hives,” Katie says.

Now age 4, Lucy is experiencing fewer allergic reactions to dogs – instead of progressing to a more severe response.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE from the Allergy and Asthma Network.

Elizabeth Falkner Goes Skin Deep On Atopic Dermatitis

AAT Winter 2016 - Skin Deep_Page_1.jpg

Elizabeth Falkner’s career was just starting to take off. She was in her early 30s, a chef and owner of a trendy San Francisco restaurant, when she began to experience painful, itchy skin rashes and lesions on her legs.

At first Elizabeth chalked it up to irritation from wearing shin guards – she’s an avid soccer player. Then the rashes appeared on her arms and hands.

“It kept getting worse – it was a burning sensation,” she says. “I went to my doctor and was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE from the Allergy Asthma Network.

Sanofi and Regeneron Announce FDA Approval of Dupixent (dupilumab)

Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc has recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Dupixent (dupilumab) Injection, the first and only biologic medicine approved for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) whose disease is not adequately controlled with topical prescription therapies, or when those therapies are not advisable.

Read more at Biospectrumasia  

Psoriasis patients have reduced access to efficient treatment method with age

Age plays a huge role when it comes to patients’ access to psoriasis treatment, research shows. Researchers who have examined if patients of varying ages have the same access to the most efficient psoriasis treatment, found that an age increase of 30 years resulted in an average 65 per cent reduction in likelihood of obtaining treatment with biologics.

More at Science Daily

FDA Approves New Ointment for Eczema

Patients aged 2 and older have a new option for treating their mild to moderate eczema (atopic dermatitis). AD, often called eczema, is a chronic condition impacting nearly 18 million children and adults in the United States.  Approximately 90 percent of people living with AD have the mild to moderate form of the condition.

More at DermCast.TV

Eczema Education Webcast: Itch

Chronic itch is a frustrating symptom affecting millions of people with eczema. The incessant desire to itch can be so intense for eczema patients that they itch until breaking the skin, which can lead to cycles of increased inflammation, more itch, and sometimes infection. Gil Yosipovitch, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Dermatology and director of the Temple Itch Center at Temple University School of Medicine, will present information on understanding, preventing, and treating itch. 

More from National Eczema Association