To the editor:
On March 1, a substantial group of lupus advocates and members of the Lupus Foundation of America will converge on Capitol Hill. In concert with sharing stories about lupus and describing daily life with the disease, the group will urge Congress to allocate more money for lupus research and education.
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system, for unknown reasons, turns against parts of the body it is designed to protect. Lupus can affect many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, and internal organs. The disease, which can be life threatening, affects approximately 1.5 million Americans, particularly women. There is no known cause or cure.
My daughter, Jen, was diagnosed with the disease in 1999 when she was 21 years old. Since her diagnosis, we have been introduced to scores of other people who also are afflicted with Lupus. We also have learned a startling fact about the disease — despite advances in technology and medical research over the past few decades, there have been no new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically for lupus in 40 years. In fact, current treatments may cause other health problems that can be worse than the primary disease.
There is hope, however, that safer and more effective therapies will be available in the near future. A healthy pipeline of potential new drugs is in various stages of clinical development. This news could not come at a better time. We need more research, and we need more medicine.
The Lupus Foundation of America is urging people to bring family members and friends to Capitol Hill for Lupus Advocacy Day. Those who attend will spend March 1 visiting with Senators and Representatives from their respective states to urge them to support more funding for lupus research and education. Since most of us cannot be there in person, I want to take to ask you to put your support in writing. Please write to your Senators and Representatives and stress how vital it is to support lupus research and boost federal funding to open the doors for an eventual cure.
For more information, please log on to the LFA Web site at www.lupus.org
Wendy Lynds
Littleton
