Positive Options for Living with Lupus Read Online Free PDF

rarely. A 1955 survey showed a five-year survival rate of only 50
    percent, but we now know that the study dealt with a very small, POL text Q6 good.qxp 8/12/2006 7:39 PM Page 19
    W h o D e ve l o p s L u p u s , W h e re , a n d W hy ?
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    seriously ill, largely untreated group of people with the disease. With today’s broader picture, it is possible to say with some confidence that lupus is only rarely fatal. Survival rates are measured over five, ten, and twenty years from diagnosis. In the mid-1990s, survival at five and ten years was close to 95 percent, and even after twenty years it was over 85 percent. If you have lupus now, with all the improvements in treatment that are available, it is highly unlikely to be life-threatening.
    Lupus in Young Children
    Lupus is rare in children under twelve, the age around when girls usually start their periods. Below the age of five it is exceedingly rare, although specialist physicians see a small number of cases between that age and adolescence.
    Very occasionally, newborn babies develop a lupus-like rash in the first weeks of life. This is not true lupus and only occurs because the mother has lupus and some of the antibodies that cause the disease have crossed the placenta from her blood into the baby’s. As the maternal antibodies die down, the rash also subsides. This condition is known as neonatal (newborn) lupus and is discussed in more detail in Chapter 10.
    Most authorities claim that there is essentially no difference between how lupus affects young children and how it affects adults.
    Children who have lupus constitute a small group, so significant statistics are difficult to gather. However, some recent studies suggest that their symptoms may often be more severe than adults’. A study from the European Working Party on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus found that the pattern of symptoms in young children—
    and also in old people and men—differed from the pattern most typical in women sufferers. Children were less likely to have rheumatoid factor (an antibody that is a frequent marker of inflammation in arthritis) in their bloodstream but more likely to suffer from the butterfly rash (also known as the malar rash), kidney problems, pericarditis, and liver and blood complications. The rash or kidney POL text Q6 good.qxp 8/12/2006 7:39 PM Page 20
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    Po s i t i v e O pt i o n s fo r L i v i n g w i t h L u p u s problems were also the symptoms most likely to bring child lupus patients to the attention of a doctor.
    Lupus in Men vs. Women
    There are small differences in how lupus affects men compared with women. Men tend to be diagnosed at a later age, and the mortality rate one year after diagnosis (infinitesimally low in the treated population) is slightly higher. The study from the European Working Party on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus found that men were less likely to suffer from arthritis and photosensitivity than women, and that pleurisy and pericarditis were more frequently their presenting symptoms (the ones that made them consult a doctor).
    Lupus in Older People
    In the context of lupus, “older” is rather broadly interpreted by the statisticians as over age fifty-five—the age by which most women have passed menopause. Including men, some 15 percent of lupus cases do not appear until this age. The European Working Party on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus found that at this age new patients were less likely to present with the butterfly rash, arthritis, or kidney problems than children or younger adults. These symptoms continued to feature less (about half as often) during the course of the illness, as did photosensitivity and thrombosis. However, sufferers of late-onset lupus were twice as likely to suffer from dry eyes and mouth (sicca syndrome). Other studies found that the discoid rash—
    hard, raised plaques that sometimes leave scarring—was more common in patients who developed lupus late in their lives.
    In developed countries, of course, older