Foreword
This site is intended for healthcare professionals as a useful source of information on the diagnosis, treatment and support of patients with lupus and related connective tissue diseases.
So much more is known about lupus - and our knowledge of the disease increases stepwise with each decade.
Take the increased awareness of the disease, for example. A recent review in the international journal LUPUS (now in its 28th year) was titled “Lupus : the new epidemic”.
Lupus is now recognised worldwide, with strikingly large series of cases coming from China and the Far East, for example.
In 1971, when I returned to London from Dr Charles Christian’s unit in New York, lupus was widely regarded as a “small print” disease. The triumph of the charity LUPUS UK has been its success in bringing our knowledge of the disease to the wider general public.
Lupus is now better understood, and treatment (and prognosis) have improved.
Three examples: the more conservative use of steroids, the new drugs such as rituximab and belimumab, and the recognition of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS, ‘sticky blood’), pointing to the need for anti-clotting agents rather than antiinflammatories.
Lupus and APS are now the subject of intensive research worldwide, widespread collaboration between doctors and far more literature and other information for patients.
Many thanks to LUPUS UK for their major contribution to lupus patients, both in the UK and abroad, and to Yvonne Norton for her work with lupus patients and for producing this guide.
Prof Graham Hughes MD FRCP
Hon Life President, LUPUS UK
Take the increased awareness of the disease, for example. A recent review in the international journal LUPUS (now in its 28th year) was titled “Lupus : the new epidemic”.
Lupus is now recognised worldwide, with strikingly large series of cases coming from China and the Far East, for example.
In 1971, when I returned to London from Dr Charles Christian’s unit in New York, lupus was widely regarded as a “small print” disease. The triumph of the charity LUPUS UK has been its success in bringing our knowledge of the disease to the wider general public.
Lupus is now better understood, and treatment (and prognosis) have improved.
Three examples: the more conservative use of steroids, the new drugs such as rituximab and belimumab, and the recognition of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS, ‘sticky blood’), pointing to the need for anti-clotting agents rather than antiinflammatories.
Lupus and APS are now the subject of intensive research worldwide, widespread collaboration between doctors and far more literature and other information for patients.
Many thanks to LUPUS UK for their major contribution to lupus patients, both in the UK and abroad, and to Yvonne Norton for her work with lupus patients and for producing this guide.
Prof Graham Hughes MD FRCP
Hon Life President, LUPUS UK
©2024 LUPUS UK (Registered charity no. 1200671)