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Angie Davidson Interviews Dr Bob Lahita

Dr Lahita is Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College and the Chairman of Medicine at Jersey City Medical Centre. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Rheumatology and the Royal College of Physicians.

I asked how Dr Lahita first became involved with lupus. He worked firstly in infectious diseases and took an elective in immunology, at the time lupus was studied as part of immunology. He was to study lupus for 3 months but this turned into 11 years!!

Celebrity support for a charity is very important and raises the profile hugely; I asked Dr Lahita if there was much celebrity support for Lupus in the USA. I was surprised to learn that there was reluctance there, as there is here, for celebrities who were sufferers to come forward and talk about it. He suspected that it was because life was all about image for celebrities and lupus didn't fit in with that image. The most famous sufferer is Michael Jackson whose discoid lupus was discovered when he was accidentally burnt whilst filming a Pepsi ad. The Backstreet Boys (Howie Durough lost his sister to lupus) remain staunch supporters as does Wayne Newton whose sister in law has lupus.

We have a perception that there is a far greater awareness of lupus in the USA than UK so I asked Dr Lahita if this was true. I was very surprised to hear that it isn't as high as we might think; he estimated that a maximum of 20% of the USA population would probably know of lupus. However, the support for lupus is high with groups such as SL Inc (the New York Foundation) raising over $1 million a year! A huge supporter is Woody Johnson of 'Johnson and Johnson' company in the USA who funds specific groups that apply for grants, this amounts to millions of dollars. Woody has a daughter that suffers from lupus.

Dr Lahita has been studying female sexuality; ovarian and uterine associated abnormalities and said that polycystic ovarian disease is common in lupus patients.Dr Lahita's latest book was published December 2003 called 'Women in auto-immunity, your body betrayed', published by Judith Regan. It's an exciting new approach to understanding auto-immunity including patients words and lives. Also his book 'Lupus, everything you need to know' has been revised, the new edition is now available and will include updates on new treatments.

Thanks to Dr Lahita for taking time to talk to us.

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