Bhopal: Psoriasis infects familial ties, woman neglects husband down with it; he seeks divorce

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Psoriasis has turned into familial discord. It came to light when a 35-year-old man afflicted with this skin disease filed a divorce petition before the family court in Bhopal.

A counsellor at the family court Sapna Prajapati has told Free Press that the man works at an IT firm in Pune and his wife in a nationalised bank in Bhopal. The couple, married eight years ago, has been living separately for the past five years and has a five-year-old son.

Prajapati further says when the banker came to know that her husband was suffering from psoriasis, she began to avoid him. The situation came to such a pass that she did not let him touch her, stopped taking food together, sharing a bed and sitting in the car or two-wheeler with him.

That often triggered a heated exchange between them, and the woman started staying with her parents, Prajapati adds.

Fed up with being neglected by her wife, the man walked up to the family court and sought divorce. In his complaint, the man also said that he was still ready to iron out the issues through court and stay together, the counsellor says.

The woman fears that the disease may spread to her and to her child, so she avoids touching him and keeps their son away from her husband.

A dermatologist Dr Shashank Shekhar, however, says that psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. The chances of inheritance from parent to child is around 10% if one parent has active disease, up to 50%,if both parents have active disease. It can be controlled by medications, but recurring and relapsing phenomenon is common, Dr Sekhar says.