Lupus Ontario celebrates Lupus Awareness Month in May

ONTARIO – May is Lupus Awareness Month, with May 10 being both World Lupus Day (internationally) and Lupus Awareness Day in Ontario.

Lupus Ontario is joining groups from around the world that have united to lead the annual World Lupus Day observance.

Lupus is a chronic, complex autoimmune disease that affects at least five million people worldwide.

More than 90 per cent of people with lupus are women; lupus most often strikes during the childbearing years of 15 to 45.

It can impact virtually any organ of the body – skin, kidneys, brain, heart, eyes, and others – with profound life altering and life limiting consequences.

Lupus Awareness Day serves to call attention to the impact that lupus has on people around the world.

Now in its 19th year, World Lupus Day will focus on the need for heightened public awareness of lupus, improved patient healthcare services, increased research into the causes of and desperately needed treatments for lupus, enhanced physician diagnosis of lupus, and better epidemiological data on lupus globally.

For more information, visit www.lupusontario.org/.