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LRI praises U.S. Congress for legislation that addresses early lupus detection and treatment

July 26, 2017

Affecting more than 1.5 million Americans, lupus is a chronic, complex and prevalent autoimmune disease, in which the body's immune system creates antibodies that can attack any organ or tissue -- the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, blood, skin, and joints. Nine out of ten lupus sufferers are women, mostly young women between the ages of 15 to 44, and women of color are especially at risk. There is no one test to diagnose lupus, and because its symptoms can be mistaken for other diseases or conditions, it can take months or years to identify and treat.

The appropriations bill contains additional funding targeted to lupus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is allocated more than $4.4 million to continue the Lupus Patient Registry, a registry study assessing the prevalence and incidence in the United States of lupus among high-risk populations in selected states.

The Defense appropriations section of the bill includes lupus along with 21 other disease conditions in the $50 million Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program, a competitive application research activity run by the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Ft. Detrick, MD.

SOURCE Lupus Research Institute