April is Rosacea Awareness month, and the National Rosacea Society (NRS) is reminding providers that they offer a plethora of patient education materials on their website. One of the Society’s primary goals is to promote the early recognition of symptoms—according to an NRS survey of 1,459 rosacea patients, 47% had never heard of rosacea prior to their diagnosis, and 95% had little or no knowledge about its signs and symptoms. Physicians interested in spreading awareness during the month of April may direct patients to www.rosacea.org, where they will find comprehensive information about the disease.
Additionally, starting this year the NRS will be cooperating with the Global Rosacea Coalition, an independent group of dermatologists, media medics, rosacea sufferers, bloggers, celebrities and professional organizations from around the world. The Coalition will hold the first Global Rosacea Awareness Month in April, culminating in a Global Rosacea Tweetathon (#ChatRosacea) on Monday, April 27, in which doctors, rosacea patients and bloggers will take part in a Twitter discussion covering core rosacea topics. The conversation will begin in Europe and Australia before moving to Latin America and then to the U.S. and Canada.
