Jeffrey J. Prager
2016
There is a silent epidemic of enormous proportions composed of Autoimmune Diseases—nearly 100 different illnesses—that have already affected millions of Americans. Autoimmune Disease is now a major American health problem. The National Institutes of Health estimate that there are 23.5 million Americans suffering from Autoimmune Disease and the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association estimates that there are 50 million Americans suffering from one Autoimmune Disease or another. The NIH includes data from 24 diseases for which good epidemiology studies are available and AARDA uses a wider estimate. Researchers have actually identified 80-100 different Autoimmune Diseases and suspect that another 40 illnesses have an autoimmune basis. These diseases are generally chronic and often deadly. Autoimmune Disease is now one of the top ten leading causes of death in female children and women in all age groups up to 64 years of age and commonly used immunosuppressant treatments frequently lead to devastating long term side effects. An autoimmune disease diagnosis can be life-threatening. There are critical factors creating obstacles in the diagnosis and treatment of Autoimmune Disease. Symptoms cross many medical specialties and can affect all body organs, the medical education system provides minimal learning about Autoimmune Disease, specialists are often unaware of interrelationships among the different autoimmune diseases or advances in treatment outside their own specialty area, initial symptoms are often intermittent and unspecific until the disease becomes acute and research is generally disease-specific and limited in scope. Cancer affects 9 million Americans and heart disease affects 22 million Americans which means Autoimmune Disease affects more people in America than any other single illness. Yet research funding for cancer and heart disease ranges in the billions while Autoimmune Disease research funds languish in the low millions. Autoimmune Disease rank
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