Abstract
Celiac disease is emerging in India and has become a public health problem. Almost 6–8 million Indians are estimated to have celiac disease. While there is a large pool of patients with celiac disease in India, until now, only a fraction of them have been diagnosed. With increasing awareness about celiac disease amongst health care providers and the general population, a massive increase in the number of patients with celiac disease is expected now and in the subsequent decade in India. While the number of patients with celiac disease is increasing, the country’s preparedness towards the emerging epidemic of this disease is minimal. There are a number of issues, which requires urgent attention. Some of the key issues include increased awareness amongst health care professionals and the general public about the disease and its management, team-based management of patients with celiac disease, proper counseling and supervision of patients, training of dietitians in the management of patients with celiac disease, industrial production of reliable and affordable gluten-free food, and food labeling for gluten contents.
Highlights
Celiac disease (CeD) is an immune-mediated enteropathy caused by exposure to gluten in genetically susceptible individuals [1,2]
In another community-based study including 10,488 subjects, both children and adults, we reported the prevalence of CeD in the Northern part of India to be 1.04% (1 in 96) and the prevalence of seropositivity to be 1.44% (1 in 69) [18]
Wheat is the staple cereal in the northern part of India and flat bread made from wheat flour is the one of the most important constituents of almost every meal
Summary
Celiac disease (CeD) is an immune-mediated enteropathy caused by exposure to gluten in genetically susceptible individuals [1,2]. Once thought to be a rare disease and believed to occur. Nutrients 2013, 5 only in Western Europe, CeD is a global disease and affects almost 0.6%–1% of the world’s population [3,4]. After Europe, America (both North and South), and the Middle East, it is emerging in the East, including many Asian countries [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Once thought to be a disease of children and to be managed mainly by pediatricians; CeD is known to affect all the age groups including the elderly [14]. While CeD is emerging, the level of the awareness it too low amongst health care professionals, even amongst those most closely involved such as general physicians, family physicians, internists, gastroenterologist and pathologists [7,9]
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