TheItalian Celiac Disease Association was founded in 1979 at the initiative of a group of parents struggling with the first cases of celiac disease. The lack of knowledge about the disease dictated their primary need: to understand what exactly it was, how to diagnose it, how to manage a gluten-free diet, and where to find safe foods.
After more than 30 years of activity and a great contribution in protecting people with celiac disease, the Italian Celiac Disease Association has about 65,000 members. Today, it has the primary goal of obtaining greater guarantees in the provision of gluten-free foods on occasions of consumption outside the home, to ensure that the celiac has a normal life in every context, in the family as well as on vacation, at work and in every other place of daily life. He fights, in fact, against the “medicalization” of the disease.
Timeliness of diagnosis is very important. Given that an estimated 1 in 100 people in Italy are gluten intolerant, the 150,000 diagnoses already established represent only the tip of the iceberg. Thanks in part to the Italian Celiac Disease Association, however, research into the disease has improved. And new diagnoses are growing by 10 percent annually.
