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Fast facts
- Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease.
- Psoriasis affects nearly 3 percent of the world's population.
- It is not contagious. It can't be spread from one person to another.
- It affects both females and males of all ages, genders, races and ethnicities.
- There is no personality type associated with having psoriasis.
- People who get psoriasis exhibit a wide range of symptoms that vary in severity.
- Psoriasis may be physically painful. Inflamed lesions can crack open and bleed. Itching may be a constant problem. Or, psoriasis may not be painful or debilitating at all.
- There are various treatments to manage the symptoms, but no one treatment is effective for everyone.
- Although there are many treatments for psoriasis, many people still face a poor quality of life because treatments often don't work, are very expensive or may cause serious side effects.
- Psoriasis goes through cycles: sometimes better, at other times worse.
- A form of arthritis, called psoriatic arthritis, affects 30 to 50 percent of the people who have psoriasis.
- There is no cure for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
- People may have very strong emotional reactions to having psoriasis, such as embarrassment, anger or sadness.
- Sometimes people who have psoriasis are ridiculed or avoided by others because of their psoriasis. Educating people about psoriasis can help manage this aspect of the disease.
- People need support to help them cope with living with psoriasis.
- It is important that people who have psoriasis learn as much as possible about their skin disorder and understand that it is a medical problem.
- Help to get rid of myths about psoriasis by educating the public with facts about the skin disorder.Â