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Lupus is one of those conditions that a lot of people have heard of, but few people really know much about. That means that there are lots of misconceptions about lupus floating around out there, like the idea that lupus is contagious. Of course, it makes sense that people would be worried about that. If you have lupus, or a loved one does, then the question of “is lupus contagious,” is very important.
After all, how can you take care of someone with lupus if you’re worried that being around them might mean that you get lupus too? And if you have lupus yourself, you might be worried that having your family around you will get them sick too.
Luckily, once you learn a little bit more about lupus, you can see how you don’t really need to worry about lupus being contagious. So what is lupus? And is lupus contagious?
What is Lupus?
Lupus seems like one of those rare, medical-mystery sorts of conditions that no one really understands. And while that’s true in once sense – we don’t know why people get lupus yet- we do understand quite a bit about how lupus works. You see lupus is something called an autoimmune disease, which is a condition where your body’s immune system turns against you.
You see, in a healthy immune system, the body produces things called antibodies through the white blood cells. These antibodies identify and attack foreign cells like bacteria and viruses. The fight these antibodies go through to destroy these foreign cells keep you healthy in a world filled with dangerous pathogens. And after destroying a certain strain of bacteria, your antibodies become conditioned to recognize that bacteria and immediately attack it wherever they find it. That’s why people can develop immunities to certain diseases after being exposed to them.
But in an autoimmune disorder like lupus. The body’s immune system becomes conditioned to attack not foreign cells, but your own. So your immune system begins to devour your own body, destroying the cells and causing inflammation that damages vital organs. And in serious cases, this can be fatal.
Is Lupus Contagious?
As stated earlier, we don’t know exactly why people get lupus yet, but we do know that it seems to be a combination of genetics and environment to blame. Lupus often runs in families and affects women at a much higher rate than men. That implies that genetics plays at least some role in who gets lupus. And in addition, we know that the environment plays a major role.
Simply having a genetic predisposition to lupus makes you more likely to get lupus, but it doesn’t guarantee it. It seems like certain things can actually trigger a lupus response in your body. One of the most common triggers is an infection by bacteria or a virus. People with lupus often find that their symptoms first started after a viral or bacterial infection which leads to their immune system becoming hyper-sensitized and turning on their own body.
But many people also develop lupus after taking certain drugs. Drug-induced lupus is a somewhat rare response among people taking a wide variety of drugs (often anti-convulsants). And in drug-induced lupus, the symptoms are the same as in regular lupus, but almost always disappear within six months of discontinuing use of the drugs.
So what about the question of “is lupus contagious?” Well, obviously none of these ways of developing lupus start with catching it from someone else, right? And in fact, there’s really no way to catch lupus from someone else. For a condition to be contagious, it needs a way to spread. For an example, let’s look at another immune condition: HIV.
HIV is a virus that gradually begins destroying your immune system, making you vulnerable to other diseases that kill you. And of course, HIV is highly infectious and spreads easily from person to person. But unlike lupus, HIV is a virus. That’s why having close contact with the bodily fluids of someone with HIV puts you at risk of contracting it, it’s spread through viral infection.
On the other hand, lupus is not a virus or a bacteria. It’s a spontaneous development within your body’s own immune system. That makes it impossible to transmit the condition to someone else. There’s no mechanism through which it could possibly spread.
So is lupus contagious? No, absolutely not.
So don’t be afraid to comfort your loved ones with lupus with a hug. And with all the suffering they’re going through, they need it. So tell us, were you wondering about the question of “is lupus contagious?” Tell us in the comments.
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