Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases affect 50 million individuals in the US (16% of the population), more than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. What’s more is that 75-80% of autoimmune patients are women, and it is the 8th leading cause of death among women. In fact, there are 7.6 million more with the autoimmune disease than breast cancer. This is an unacknowledged public health crisis where young adults are most at risk for 7 of the more than 80 autoimmune diseases–type 1 diabetes, lupus, Crohn’s, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, Graves disease of the thyroid and rheumatoid arthritis. These autoimmune diseases are costing the US healthcare system for more than 100 billion annually. How did this happen? Like cancers 50 years ago, autoimmune diseases are not generally grouped into a common category; instead, these more than 80 diseases are scattered among various body systems and specialists. Despite the increasing prevalence, these diseases remain under-recognized and underserved and are in desperate need of public health interventions. What are we going to do about it? This talk will outline a three-step solution to acknowledge that autoimmunity is a public health crisis. We wil discuss collecting incidence and prevalence data that aggregates the diseases, and creating centers of excellence to bring the collaboration of specialists to one location.