Jakarta, IO – World Lupus Day is commemorated on 10 May each year. This year, WHO’s theme for the day is “Let’s Make Lupus Visible”. The commemoration is an effort to make people all over the world become more aware of lupus, an autoimmune disease suffered by more than 5 million worldwide, and support lupus sufferers. This disease is both genetic and caused by the environment, and it strongly affects the quality of its sufferers’ lives. Of the 5 million sufferers world wide , 10% – 20% a r e children, with a gender infection ratio of 5 females per each 1 male.
There are two periods in lupus: faring and remission. When the disease “fares”, it has increased activity in terms of new or renewed symptoms, worsening symptoms, or worsening of indicator values tested for in the supplementary tests. On the contrary, “remission” is when the disease activity is lowered – reduced or stoppage of symptoms, or betterment of the tested indicator values.
The Shapeshifting Disease
During a live IG session “Let’s Know Deeper about Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in Children” held on Tuesday (10/05/2022), dr. Mahrani Lubis, Sp.A(K), pediatric consultant from the Imelda Pekerja Indonesia Hospital, Medan, explained that SLE or lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that occurs because the body produces antibodies that attack its own cells. The disease’s clinical manifestation, progress, and prognosis are so varied, that lupus is frequently referred to as “the disease with a thousand faces”.