As a new member of the PRP Facebook Support Group — Steve B (Cambridge, England, UK) had observed that the onset of PRP seemed to occur more frequently during the months of February to May. While Steve’s conclusion was based on the comments of a few, perhaps the PRP Community Database could shed some light on this subject.
Based on 858 PRP patients whose month and date of onset are included the the database, the “numbers” indicate that the onset of PRP is a year-long occurence that may actually peak during June and July. The monthly totals range from a low of 56 in February and to a high of 99 in June.
Then it dawned on me that there are PRP patients in the Southern Hemisphere. A quick look at 65 onset dates associated with Australia and New Zealand indicated that the first seven months had more reported onsets of PRP than the last four month. This was the opposite for the Northern Hemisphere.
While I am not a statistician, I suspect that one could reasonably conclude that pityriasis rubra pilaris is an equal opportunity skin disorder — with year round onset. The peaks and valleys may simply reflect the reporting of information.
Source of the Numbers
When I was sidelined by PRP-related fatigue (March to October 2013) and a member of the PRP Support Group (not this group, RareConnect or the PRP Alliance), I had limitless free time. That was when I decided to read the emails in the PRP-L Archives — all 29,000 of them. There is little effort expended while sitting on one’s butt in front of an iMac.
I “harvested” over 1,500 email addresses and data on nearly 2,000 PRP patients. That initial influx of information has been augmented over the past four years by a PRP Census and “picking up” data points from posts, comments and replies shared by PRP Facebookers in particular.
PRP Onset by Month