World IBD Day 2026: Raising Awareness for Better Access to IBD Care
On 19 May 2026, PerPrev-CID joined the global IBD community in marking World IBD Day, an annual awareness campaign dedicated to people living with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. This year’s theme, “IBD Has No Borders: Access to IBD Care”, highlighted one of the most pressing challenges faced by people with IBD around the world: unequal access to timely diagnosis, specialist support, and effective treatment.
Raising Awareness and Talking About Access to IBD Care
As a project committed to advancing the early detection and personalised prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases, PerPrev-CID recognises the importance of increasing understanding and visibility of IBD both within and beyond the research community. To mark this year’s World IBD Day, PerPrev-CID once again took part in awareness-raising activities at Kiel University, where the purple World IBD Day flag was raised in solidarity with people living with IBD. By participating in the global campaign, PerPrev-CID reaffirms its commitment to keeping patient perspectives at the heart of its research efforts.
This year, we also had the opportunity to speak with two Patient Research Partners in PerPrev-CID, Vasiliki Rafaela Vakouftsi and Cora Wallach Sanches, about life with IBD. Drawing on their personal experiences, they shared their views on what good care means in practice, why timely diagnosis and specialist support are so important, and what still needs to change to ensure that everyone can access the care they need. Their perspectives underline that improving access to care is not only about treatment, but also about access to reliable information, listening to patients, and providing support for the often invisible burden of living with IBD.
Watch the full interviews:
