Leucoderma is neither contagious nor harmful. This skin disorder does not cause any organic harm it just cause skin de-pigmentation due to which other psychological problem like tension, embarrassment, loss of self-confidence or other psychological problem may arise and this becomes a social stigma for the victim. This disease affects one percent of the whole world population. This disease is found to be more common in India. This disease is equally common among men and women which show that this disease is not gender biased.  Most commonly affected areas of body are the parts of the body that are easily exposed to sun such as hands, feet, face, ears and arms.

Leucoderma typically initiates with a small white patch and afterwards it starts spreading on other parts of the body. Usually these patches are pale in the initial stage and in the later stages these patches changes color to a whiter and brighter shade due to loss in pigment. Univeralis leucoderma is a type of leucoderma in which only few areas of the body remain normally pigmented and rest of the body becomes normally pigmented. Segmental leucoderma is a type of leucoderma in which only one side of the body gets affected and the other remains normally pigmented. Focal leucoderma is a type of leucoderma in which only few patches appear and does not spread further. Vulgaris vitilgo is the type of leucoderma in which patches appear on the skin but they appear at larger distance from the center of body like face, hands and feet.

The causes of leucoderma are not completely known and many wrong concepts are prevalent about its causes. Some people say that eating fish and drinking milk at the same time causes this disease but that is not true. It is a genetic disorder and inheritance is one of its several causes and thirty percent of the people get this disease through inheritance. Another cause of vitiligo is severe mental of physical stress.

Some people have also reported that leucoderma has relationship with other autoimmune disease. No authentic proof is available for its cause. Even its cure is not available the treatments that are available only helps in re-pigmentation. People looking for curing leucoderma should go for re-pigmentation because of the unavailability of cure. They can also look for cosmetic camouflages that can help in disguising leucoderma.