Celiac Disease in India - Status Update

Excerpt

Non-communicable diseases are making inroads in our population with such rapidity that many have taken epidemic proportions. One of these is Celiac disease (CD) – a late entrant but certainly making its mark [1]. Multiple studies suggest that it affects 1% of our North Indian population and about half of that in other parts of the country. So in effect, a condition that was not taught in medical colleges till about two decades ago, affects almost 75 lac individuals in the nation! But this is far from the number of cases diagnosed with Celiac disease currently. The problem of the low diagnosis rate appears to be two-fold – the presentation of Celiac disease varies immensely and hence we may not think about it plus some practicing doctors are not really aware of this condition as being so widely prevalent. …