[Actinic prurigo. An assessment of current status]

Actinic prurigo (AP) is a hereditary photodermatoses with typical symptoms and is quite common in North- and South-America. The key genetic factor appears to be a Native American background. In Europeans this type of AP is extremely rare; some dispute if this disease exists in Caucasians. Some newer publications postulate that these patients share HLA markers with the Native Americans. The most important differential diagnosis for AP is polymorphic light eruption which can be excluded relatively accurately by the clinical picture, typical histology and HLA pattern.The case of a female patient of Mayan ancestry living in Germany is presented.Since in literature sometimes cases from Europe are diagnosed as AP this is a problem of naming the disease. It would be helpful to integrate the terms hereditary or hereditaria into the name of the disease in indians.