On the occasion of World Arthritis Day on October 12, Institute of Neurosciences, , Kolkata (I-NK) organised an event to create awareness among the people regarding the disease and help the community fight the ailment.
Most of the rheumatological diseases are autoimmune diseases. An autoimmune disease sets in when the our deranged immune system considers self-antigens as foreign and attack our own organs, and causes damages to different organs. Examples of inflammation of different organ systems are arthritis (joints), vasculitis (blood vessels), domeruionephritis (Kidney, myositis (muscle), myelitis (spinal cord), uveitis (eye) etc. Commonly known rheurnatological diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondvlitis, SLE. Sjogren’s syndrome. scicroderma — all of these diseases are multi-system diseases, eta. in ankylosing, spondyhtis joints (arthritis). vertebral column (spondylitis), eyes (uveitis), gastrointestinal tract (Crohnes disease or ulcerative colitis) and skin (psoriasis) are commonly affected.
Experts spoke about the lack of awareness leading to critical conditions in patients and hoped that the awareness programme will definitely help many to go for proper treatment.
It is to be noted that that rheuamatological diseases are not only restricted to joints, other organs are also commonly affected. As rheuamatological diseases occur due to dysfunctional immune system,immune-modulation or immuno-supression with various type of medicines are the mainstay of treatment. Although ‘cure’ is not possible in many of these diseases, excellent disease control is possible with modern treatment, including, biological therapy.
