"Each year, millions of Americans suffer pain, illness and even death as a result of multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases," Secretary Thompson said. "This new research plan will guide our efforts to understand the causes of these diseases and how we can better treat and prevent them to improve people's lives."
The Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan provides specific recommendations on future research directions and demonstrates the commitment of HHS to continue a robust program of autoimmune disease research. The plan also calls for educating the medical community and the public about autoimmune diseases.
"This plan highlights many unprecedented opportunities to increase our understanding of autoimmune diseases at the population, individual and molecular levels, with a conceptual focus on the underlying mechanisms shared among many autoimmune diseases," said Elias Zerhouni, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health. "This strategy should ultimately allow the translation of new knowledge into more effective treatments and prevention strategies."
Autoimmune diseases result when the immune system attacks the body's own organs, tissues and cells. Physicians and scientists have identified more than 80 different autoimmune diseases. Some are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and systemic lupus; others are less familiar, such as autoimmune hepatitis, Sjgren's syndrome and pemphigus.
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Contact: Jeff Minerd
jminerd@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
10-Jan-2003