Lupus Awareness Month

October is Lupus Awareness Month. The aim of the month is to raise as much awareness as possible for this disease and how it affects people.

What is Lupus?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease. You cannot “catch” it from someone. The symptoms vary in different people and can be life-threatening if it is not treated early.

Lupus mainly affects the major organs of the body including, the heart, lungs, skin, and kidneys. Lupus makes your brain think that there is a foreign body in the organs and wages war against its own organs.

Why the butterfly?

You may have come across the logo for Lupus, which is a butterfly. Some people with Lupus tend to get a rash on their face, this is known as a Malar Rash. The rash looks like a butterfly across the cheeks and over the bridge of the nose, hence the butterfly.

How do you diagnose Lupus?

Lupus is quite a poorly understood disease and there isn’t just one test to diagnose it. It can be years before people get a diagnosis after ruling many other diseases out.

If not treated early Lupus can cause irreversible damage to the heart, brain, and kidneys.

Diagnosis of Lupus usually involves seeing a rheumatologist, taking your medical history, and having blood tests for different markers. Not one test can diagnose Lupus on its own.

How do you treat Lupus?

There are many medications that can dampen the symptom of Lupus. There is currently no known cure for Lupus but with the right medication it can be treated and some patients can even go into remission.

Delayed diagnosis

The timescale for diagnosis of Lupus can vary but if you suffer from Lupus and are concerned that diagnosis and/or treatment may have been delayed, and your condition may have worsened as a result, you may consider consulting solicitors. If a clinical negligence claim is to be investigated, the solicitors would need to seek advice from independent medical experts to see whether the criteria for a case could be met.