HealthPeopleWellnessKemi Afolabi: Eight Facts You Should Know About Lupus

Nigerian actress, Kemi Afolabi, recently opened up on her battle with Lupus, an inflammatory condition where the immune system attacks its own tissues and organs.

The actress who disclosed this during an interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, revealed that her doctor said she has only five years to live and she has lived one year out of that already.

“I have lupus. It’s not curable. You just have to take medications for the rest of your life,” she said.

She noted that she spent N1.2m on treatment, but there was little or no change and she was continually in pain.

For some, Afolabi’s announcement might be the first time they would hear of the life-threatening disease called Lupus, and as such, their mind may be spinning with questions: What is lupus? What are the symptoms? How will you be treated? Is it curable?

Here, West African Pilot News addresses your basic questions.

Lupus is an autoimmune, and inflammatory disease caused when the immune system attacks its own tissues. In this situation, immune system cells that are supposed to protect the body from different germs start treating normal, healthy cells like invaders, attacking them and causing flare-ups that can affect the joints, kidneys, and almost any other system in the body.

Women at childbearing age (between 15 and 44) are at the highest risk of lupus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the disease isn’t limited to younger adults. Between 10 and 20 percent of people with systemic lupus are diagnosed before age 18, according to a study in Nature Reviews Rheumatology, and adults can also have “late-onset” lupus that is diagnosed after age 50.

Lupus affects roughly 10 times as many women as men. However, men tend to have more damage earlier in the disease and have lower survival rates. Hormones might play a role in sex differences, but studies have not found a conclusive answer.

Symptoms of lupus vary from person to person, from severity to the body parts affected. Some of the most common signs of lupus are rash and joint pain, fatigue, hair loss, mouth sores, and fever.

At this point, scientists haven’t found a cure for lupus. That said, chronic disease is not a death sentence. With new medications, lupus mortality rates have improved over time, and the life expectancy for women with lupus-related kidney inflammation is almost on par with women of similar age groups in the general population, according to a study in the Internal Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology.

Sometimes, a mother with lupus or antibodies related to it can pass those antibodies to her newborn, causing a form of lupus called neonatal lupus. Typically, the result is lupus-like skin lesions that go away after a few months, when the babies start to make their own antibodies.

Drugs can’t cure lupus, but they can prevent flare-ups. Available medications can suppress the immune system, holding back the antibodies that would otherwise be triggering inflammation. A rheumatologist will be able to recommend the best treatment plan for a particular patient.

Left unchecked, inflammation running rampant in the body can lead to serious complications. For lupus, damage to the kidneys is a big concern. About 40 to 70 percent of lupus patients have kidney inflammation, according to a study in Nature Reviews Nephrology, making renal failure one of the main comorbidities.

Meanwhile, Nigerians and fellow colleagues in the Nollywood industry have taken to social media to encourage, console and pray for Kemi Afolabi over the state of her health.