How many children have rheumatoid arthritis

Many think that arthritis is a disease that impact Arthritis is often seen as an infliction experienc Several weeks ago an order was placed for a large Kelly was first diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic What is Juvenile Arthritis? Get more juvenile arthritis information with your free fact sheet! Signs and Symptoms of Juvenile Arthritis Joint pain Swelling Fever Stiffness Rash Fatigue tiredness Loss of appetite Inflammation of the eye Difficulty with daily living activities such as walking, dressing, and playing.

Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Ferri FF. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis. In: Ferri's Clinical Advisor Accessed Oct.

Questions and answers about juvenile arthritis. Juvenile arthritis. American College of Rheumatology. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Children with systemic JIA have arthritis in 1 or more joints. They also have a fever and rash that come and go.

They may have swollen lymph nodes and problems with the heart, lungs, and blood. A child with polyarticular JIA has arthritis is in 5 or more joints in the first 6 months of disease. They also might have inflammation inside the eye called uveitis and other problems. Children with oligoarticular JIA have arthritis is in fewer than 5 joints in the first 6 months of the disease.

In some children, more joints become affected after that. They may also have uveitis. Children with enthesitis-related JIA have enthenitis inflammation where tendons and ligaments connect to bone and arthritis.

They may also have uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease IBD. Juvenile means young, so this means that JIA is different from the arthritis that adults get. Kids can have many different types of arthritis, but JIA is the most common. Many problems can cause pain and swelling of the joints, so a doctor will want to know how long these problems have been going on. To be considered JIA, the joints must have swelling and pain for at least 6 weeks. No one really knows what causes JIA. Something in the environment, like a virus, may trigger the disease in kids that already have certain genes that make it more likely for them to get it.

Genes are like instructions to the body on how to work. Genes are passed on from parents to their children and they decide everything from the color of a person's eyes to whether that person has a tendency to get a particular disease.

Genes are part of our DNA and are found in the body's cells. JIA is not contagious, so you can't catch it from someone else. Arthritis is an autoimmune say: aw -toe-i- myoon disease.

An autoimmune disease means a person's immune system makes a mistake and attacks the body's own tissues or organs. Normally, a kid's immune system sends out white blood cells to protect the body and fight outside invaders like bacteria and viruses that can make a kid sick.

But with an autoimmune disease like JIA, the immune system makes a mistake and attacks healthy cells. Instead of recognizing the healthy cells and saying, "Hi, nice to see you," the immune system thinks the healthy cells need to be destroyed and releases chemicals to fight the healthy cells.

The chemicals released by the immune system cause the pain and swelling that can happen with arthritis. Just because a joint hurts doesn't mean a kid has JIA.