PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – As Wednesday marks World Lupus Day, the Lupus Foundation of America is raising awareness to the widespread autoimmune disease.
Lupus causes the immune system to attack healthy tissue instead of fighting off disease or infection, according to Lupus Foundation of America Pacific Northwest Leadership Councilmember Shannon Boxx.
“It’s called ‘cruel mystery’ because it takes years and years to diagnose, it’s hard to treat and it can be fatal,” Boxx said.
Boxx, who is also a former member of the US Women’s National Soccer Team, Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion, says she was diagnosed with lupus in 2008 but started feeling symptoms in 2002 — including joint pain, fatigue and lupus rash.
Boxx explained that part of what makes the disease difficult is that symptoms can vary from tissue damage to organ issues.
The disease also predominantly affects women, with nine out of 10 people diagnosed being women, and is more well known among certain racial backgrounds including African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Latinos, Boxx said.
“There is no cure and that is what we’re trying to change and that’s why we have Lupus Awareness Month. It’s to make lupus more visible and to get the lupus community together, to put on purple, raise awareness in the hopes that we can start to raise more funds for research,” Boxx said.
“The Lupus Foundation of America has been a lifesaver to me when I was going through the initial stages of what I had, I didn’t understand most of it like everybody else,” Boxx said. “The Lupus Foundation and other companies have done such an amazing job of making drugs and medicine that can actually help people who are living with lupus day in and day out.”