Top 8 Challenge Day – August 8, 2024

History of Top 8 Challenge Day

Top 8 Challenge Day is observed on August 8 every year in Australia as part of the country’s National EOS Awareness Week, where people raise awareness for EGIDs. EGIDs is an acronym for eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders. EGIDs are rare genetic disorders, which occur when there’s an above-average amount of eosinophils in the gastrointestinal tract.

Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that plays an important role in the gastrointestinal tract. But an excess of these white cells causes problems. The name and description of the disorder depend on where in the gastrointestinal tract the eosinophils accumulate.

In the esophagus, the disorder is called eosinophilic oesophagitis. In the stomach, it is eosinophilic gastritis. When the disorder occurs in the duodenum, it is called eosinophilic duodenitis. In the small intestine and the large intestine, the disorders are referred to as eosinophilic enteritis and eosinophilic colitis, respectively. Finally, among people where the entire gastrointestinal tract is affected, the disorder is called eosinophilic gastroenteritis.

These EGIDs have severe effects on the human body; The symptoms include difficulty swallowing, frequent vomiting, acid reflux, abdominal pain, and poor weight gain because of malabsorption of nutrition and inability to eat. Unfortunately, the disorder cannot be diagnosed based on the symptoms alone and must be diagnosed via endoscopy with biopsies.

Because of how rare these disorders are, there isn’t a lot of information about them, especially since the symptoms are generic and cannot be used as a basis for a proper diagnosis. Not a lot is known about what causes the EGIDs, but it is assumed to be a response to allergens.