Rare Water Allergy Disrupts Moroccan Student’s Life in France

"This Thursday (October 17, editor’s note), I had forgotten to take an umbrella and I was not wearing my waterproof pants. Ten minutes after being touched by a few drops, I started to scratch. I had to give up my afternoon class," Zineb tells La Dépêche du Midi. The Moroccan student suffers from aquagenic pruritus. Her entire body is assailed by itching except for her hands and face. She has had this rare disease since the age of 9. In Morocco, when her mother gave her a shower, she started to scream and twist in intense pain. "We didn’t understand what was happening. The doctors who examined me after this crisis didn’t understand either. They recommended gels and soaps for sensitive skin. No one made the connection with the burns and itching," recalls the third-year psychology student.

Zineb’s condition stabilized until she obtained her baccalaureate at age 17. After that, her rare allergy to water worsened. "Every time I take a shower or sweat, the pain and itching manifest immediately, out of my control. I only tolerate seawater," she specifies. She is forced to wash only once a week and uses non-rinsing cleansing gels "to maintain proper body hygiene" on the other days. For now, there is no curative treatment. Even the antihistamines prescribed by a doctor are far from relieving the student. The symptoms are always present. The new treatment (antibody injections) she started two months ago is far from reassuring her.

"For now, they are not working. I was told to wait a few more months to see changes," the young woman specifies. Her dermatologist at the Toulouse University Hospital confirmed her dermographism during a clinical examination. Since then, Zineb has been suffering from depression. "It’s hard to live with. I deprive myself of many things. I loved to dance. I can’t anymore. I don’t know if my aquagenic pruritus is the only cause of my depression. I just know that it played a big role..." she confides. Her illness is slowing her down in her quest to find a student job. "I worked as an animator seven hours a week. I was fired, not involved enough according to management. Yet I show good will but when I have to do an activity and I will be in contact with water, it turns into torture. It’s very weird to start scratching in front of people. These jobs are still my only source of income..."

Desperate, Zineb succumbs to fatalism. "The sound of running water is synonymous with suffering. I don’t think I will ever be cured of this disease."