NIH Launches Celiac Disease Web site

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a campaign to heighten awareness of celiac disease among health care professionals and the public. The Celiac Disease Foundation has been collaborating with the NIH on this campaign, which is the result of recommendations from an independent consensus panel convened by the NIH in 2004.

The consensus panel concluded that as many as 1 percent of the U.S. population have celiac disease, but the vast majority remains undiagnosed. To address this disparity, the panel recommended that NIH spearhead efforts to educate health care providers and the public about the disease.

Initially, the campaign will focus on increasing awareness among health care professionals about the prevalence of celiac disease, its disparate symptoms, and the blood test to detect it. Other campaign messages will address the array of health consequences related to celiac disease with the goal of dispelling the common misperception that it is only a gastrointestinal problem.

The campaign web site at www.celiac.nih.gov provides access to

The Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign is an initiative of the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, NIH.