Autoimmune disease incidence increasing 19% annually

The Increasing Prevalence of Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases: An Urgent Call to Action for Improved Understanding, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

Frederick W Miller 1

Clipped from PDF

NHANES data have shown that (US) ANA prevalence was

11.0% in 1988–1991, 11.4% in 1999–2004, and 16.1% in 2011–2012

This represents 22.3, 26.6, and 41.5 million affected individuals, respectively.

Estimates of the yearly increases in the overall worldwide

incidence and prevalence of autoimmune diseases are

19.1% and 12.5%, respectively

Autoimmunity is characterized by self-reactive immune components and autoimmune disease by autoimmunity plus pathology. Both autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases are dramatically increasing in many parts of the world, likely as a result of changes in our exposures to environmental factors. Current evidence implicates the momentous alterations in our foods, xenobiotics, air pollution, infections, personal lifestyles, stress, and climate change as causes for these increases. Autoimmune diseases have a major impact on the individuals and families they affect, as well as on our society and health care costs, and current projections suggest they may soon take their place among the predominant medical disorders. This necessitates that we increase the scope and scale of our efforts, and coordinate our resources and studies, to understand autoimmune disease risk factors and pathogeneses and improve our diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive approaches, as the costs of inaction will be profound and far greater without such investments.

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