Global Prevalence of Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Résumé fourni par la source

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a unique disease. Many patients remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed initially and, in consequence, fail to receive adequate and timely treatment [1]. It is a chronic, painful, debilitating, and disfiguring disease with a significant impact on the quality of life. It is a global disease, but our collective understanding remains local. One of the unique factors of HS is the complex etiopathogenesis that includes genetic, epigenetic, infectious, and environmental factors [2]. It is not a mere disfiguring skin disease without hard consequences, but rather has a significantly higher risk of death [3‒5]. The disease has some unique challenges as it affects sensitive areas of the body, frequent and painful flares, complicated by the absence of curative treatment. It affects the most productive and active period of life (third and fourth decades); impairs professional, social, and sexual life; and is considered one of the most life-impacting skin disorders. Though the diagnosis of HS is clinical with clear-cut simple criteria, a diagnosis of HS suffers a 7–10 years delay from the appearance of the first lesion [6]. This may be due to a general lack of awareness in the medical community, patient’s access to health care, stigma, and other social factors.The prevalence of HS from different parts of the world is highly variable (0.00033–4.1%), which may be due to genetic background, socioeconomic factors, and different methodologies in identifying, e.g., local prevalence [7]. Previous studies have suggested that HS may be more common in, e.g., African American, or Hispanic populations. None of these, however, changes the fact that the overwhelming majority of data are based on observations of Caucasians residing in North America or Europe.In this setting, Dermatology is launching this Hidradenitis Suppurativa supplement. The Global Hidradenitis Suppurativa Atlas (GHiSA) is a unique global collaboration conducting epidemiology studies. The project was initiated by Professor Jemec and has spread out to currently running simultaneously in 59 countries (95 centers) across 6 continents: Africa, Europe, Australia, North America, South America, and Asia. It is an international collaboration for a series of planned well-designed studies conducted with the same methodology. Interestingly, the highest prevalence was observed in Saudi Arabia (4.1%) with a sample size of 688 and the lowest prevalence in Bangladesh (0.13%) with a sample size of 2,377.This timely initiative of GHiSA provides peer-reviewed papers describing the prevalence of HS in 25 different countries. We hope that this standardized, large dataset on HS from all over the world will contribute to a much-needed global perspective to our understanding of the disease and provide inspiration for those engaged in the study of other diseases.The authors would like to thank all the participants and researchers who have made this possible and their efforts are greatly appreciated. The supplement describes an enormous amount of work, done pro bono by all those involved for the ultimate benefit of patients. We also appreciate the unrestricted grant from Novartis for the support of this publication. Novartis has had no influence on the content, form, or analysis.The authors are part of the GHiSA collaboration. With no relation to the submitted work, G.R.V. has been supported by research grants by Region Sjaelland, Den Bøhmske Fond, Hans og Nora Buchards Fond, and Toosonix. M.S.I.B. has no conflicts of interest to declare.The work received unrestricted grant from Novartis to support this supplement. Novartis has had no influence on the content, form, or analysis.G.R.V. and M.S.I.B. drafted and wrote the manuscript.

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