Up to 90 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis do not know their treatment goals, the Taiwan League Against Rheumatism said on Friday as it launched a simplified one-minute scale for patients to assess their condition and manage their treatment goals.
League executive director Tsai Chang-youh (蔡長祐), who is also Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology director, said that rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that can cause the immune system to attack healthy tissue in the joints, causing severe inflammation.
There are about 100,000 to 200,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis in the nation, and women are more likely to develop the condition than men, he said.
Photo: CNA
However, about 30 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis failed to get regular checkups during a local COVID-19 outbreak this year, he said, adding that if their condition is not monitored, the disorder can cause systemic inflammation, swelling, joint pain and even joint deformity.
The league gave the example of a 32-year-old nurse, surnamed Cheng (鄭),who has managed her arthritis for the past 15 years.
Cheng first developed wrist pain at age 17, but initially dismissed it as a side effect of her internship as a nurse.
However, the pain intensified over the course of a week and spread to her body, causing her to have difficulty walking. She sought treatment at an emergency room and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
Cheng said cool and damp weather worsen her symptoms, causing increased swelling and pain at the joints, and making simple daily tasks, such as taking a mask off or brushing her teeth, difficult.
League chairperson Tsai Shih-tzu (蔡世滋) said there are treatment goals for different diseases.
Doctors use a measure called DAS28 — in which DAS refers to “disease activity score” and 28 refers to the number of painful or swollen joints — to determine the severity of rheumatoid arthritis in a person, he said.
The main treatment goal should be controlling inflammation, easing pain and reducing disability, he added.
However, he said up to 90 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis do not know the primary goal of treatment or when they should seek medical attention.
Tsai Chang-youh said the league prepared a one-minute scale to help people with rheumatoid arthritis assess and record their condition regularly, so that they can discuss it with their doctor during checkups to come up with effective treatment plans.
The scale asks people several questions — including their general pain level and whether they have difficulty in getting up from bed, putting their clothes on, and filling a cup with water and drinking it. The answers add up to different scores that indicate the severity of their condition.
Tsai Shih-tzu said cold and damp weather worsen rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, and although the condition cannot be cured, patients can monitor their conditions and relieve their symptoms through treatment to attain a better quality of living.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the
RSS