Recognizing the Effects and Disparities of Pediatric Hidradenitis Suppurativa

In 2015, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) was deemed a rare disease that was reported to affect fewer than 200 000 adults in the US, thus allowing adalimumab (Humira; AbbVie) to gain orphan drug approval for the treatment of moderate to severe disease in adults.1 Three years later in 2018, adalimumab was granted orphan drug approval for moderate to severe HS in adolescents (age 12-17 years), a group thought to be even less frequently affected by HS compared with adults.1 However, in the same year, Ingram et al2 reported updated epidemiological data on the prevalence of HS, with an estimated overall prevalence of HS at 0.77% in a Western population. The data by Ingram et al2 confirmed the experience of many dermatologists, that HS is not uncommon, but rather unseen.