Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

1) Systemic lupus erythematosus ("SLE") is a very serious, usually incurable and often fatal disease resulting (at least in large part) from production of a whole series of different anti-self antibodies, including antibodies against DNA (both double stranded and single stranded), phospholipids, collagen, histones and RNA. Note the contrast with most autoimmune diseases, in which only one self-antigen is attacked! SLE should not be confused with "Lupus vulgaris" which is a skin form of tuberculosis, and has nothing at all to do with SLE except superficial similarity of a few of their symptoms.

2) About 130,000 Americans are now being treated for SLE, although probably as many as a million Americans are affected by some form of this disease (including milder and more temporary forms, and some cases that are not diagnosed, as happened to Charles Kuralt).

3) Just over 90% of lupus victims are women, 90% of these are young women. Lupus also occurs in children, where the sex ratio is only about 1-3 boys to girls, and where the disease progresses more rapidly than in adults, and is usually fatal. In general, the later you get lupus, the less rapidly it will kill you; although even for young adult patients more than half of patients can be effectively treated (the disease being "managed" rather than cured). I have not yet found a number for fatalities per year, but it is somewhere in the thousands per year, perhaps five thousand per year (which would be a seventh or eighth as many fatalities as AIDS in this country, since these have now dropped back below 40,000 per year).