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
