Malaria and lupus auto immune diseases

General
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Hi All,

Hope some one out there will be able to help or point in my a great direction for help.

My 29yr old niece contacted malaria after being a student in Ghana, about 6/7 years ago. Yes, she was on precaution medicine. She also was under extreme stress due to the fact that her friends were being raped and she herself was frighten of it happening to her. I finally talked her into leaving before the school year was up. It was not worth her being raped.

I think one reason her and some of friends still caught malaria, despite taking precaution, was due to this stress plus lack of clean water.

So now she has malaria...which flares(fever, fatigue) than settles down.

Her father, my brother, had autoimmune disease(s)...they think possibly sarcoidosis but i once found a disease (auto immune that fit all his symptoms to a T)...i cannot locate it again.

He, like me, was sick all his life. But compared to my brother i felt i was healthy lol! So far neither of his daughters show any auto immune problems...though the same one with malaria had complained of pain in her legs ..muscle and joint off and on since high school.

Right now...she is working in a job for well known company as medical advisor. They have doctors on site, as well as RN's and people to do many common tests,xray blood etc.

I was just told by her sister that she works from 6am till midnight most days. Once at home...since this is world wide company she often is working from home as well. The house they bought is a fixer upper and she has been without a kitchen that works well for 2yrs now.

My question is...has anyone known anyone with autoimmune diseases and malaria? Because now not only did her dad have auto immune illness so bad he died(age34) when she was 5, but her uncle has scleroderma for last 5 years. He has it bad enough...still working but only pt last few years..he is my age mid fifties.

I am worried that with her working that many hours she is going to push her body right into some auto immune disease.

Plus...just wonder if marlaria has been known to act as trigger? Or does anyone just know more than basic stuff i am reading online about malaria...off shoots of it etc.

She has told me that she does get tired and fevers come on...which is similar to many auto immune diseases i am afraid she will just blame it on malaria.

Also..she saw me go from full time in job i loved to part time and now her uncle...we were like favorite aunt and uncle on either side....i took over helping to raise them on my days off since their mom went back to work after my brother died. So been very close to point i look at her often like she is my child.

She told me she is trying to get the respect like i got ...i was able to go part time with full benefits.

I am afraid she is going to make herself sick..never in my life could i work those many hours period! I think that is good sign....but i am afraid she is going to just have one stress factor enter...like grandparents passing....and that will be enough to send her body into clicking that gene on..to an autoimmune disease.

i know they still have not quite proven it is genetics but really looks that way.

Do aYou think i am just over worrying? Does anyone know anyone that has had malaria for long time and how are hey doing? Did anything else piggyback onto it like how with lupus we often get fibro or RA etc.

Or does anyone know of someone with malaria that did get auto immune diseases?

If you think i am over worrying for nothing...tell me.

One last thing...her fiance' (getting married end of june) has psoriatic arthritis...and he was 1st person since my brother that has to have his esophagus enlarged regularly so he does not choke on his food. He just found out he had PsA 2yrs ago. He is also doing research on finding a cure for Lupus and other autoimmune diseases...very brilliant, nice young man...but worry when they try to have children. SInce i kept miscarrying . She really wants 1 baby of her own than adopt..so guess she could adopt. lol..that is last of my worries about her.

I appreciate any imput...i know this is kind of weird off the collar request. But since i found out that she is working that many hours on regular basis, it has me worried.

Yes..i know it is illegal...she is manager but still they cannot work people around the clock ! Plus who she works for...is known for being such a great place to work for!! So this is really surprising that they push her so hard..also make great story!lol

Well thanks for any help ....much appreciated.

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i wish i could help.

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Thanks....been trying to look in all research papers...and cannot find anything clear. So thought i try forums...but guess no one knows...thankfully it is not here in US. SO we mainly do not have that to contend with on top of other diseases.

Just i do know that they feel stress turns on the auto immune disease....so searching in those studies too here as well as in countries where malaria is common. Some one over there might be able to help me out...thanks so much for acknowledging it..appreciate it so very much.

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Wow I'm sorry for your situation. Everyone on my Mom's side of the family have lupus and other auto-immune diseases. We traced it back 11 generations, but i wouldn't be surprised if it goes farther back.

ANY illness, trauma or prolonged strss can bring on auto-immune disease if the tendency is your body. It's impossible to tell someone to slow down to avoid a crash. They will function as much as possible until they get sick, then they function to their new lower limits. In fact if I would have known that I would be so limited within a few years, I would have done MORE when I was able, would have made more great memories and more accomplishments. Please try not to worry. Worry is borring trouble from tomorrow, suffering about things that have not happened yet.

My husband and I both had auto-immune disease, so we are watching our daughters. So far so good, they are in their mid 30s and one has fibromyalgia, so they might be the first generation to not get lupus. I have that twinge of fear of lupus every time they get sick for a long time, but so far they are fine. I don't know if anyone would avoiod the joy of having children for fear of this being passed on, but it was really hard to raise them when I was so sick, and with both parents having the potential to get very sick for long periods of time, they will have a struggle when they have children.

Best wishes to you and your family!

Sheila

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wow! have you ever had your family get on study? I know with just my brother being my half brother they immediately started one on us. Sadly when he died it ended. This was early eighties when it started. I was told that it was extremely rare for half brother and sister to both have auto immune diseases.

In fact, if you traced it back 11 generations I am trying to figure out what year...i would say at least 1700's? Since my brother was sick, we have tried looking back on my mother's side. We have family members who done genealogy back to 1500's. There was only 1 male relative...believe it was my mother's great grandfather who had died young with lung and kidney issues that lead suspect but no medical proof. That family had to be pretty darn healthy they came to American long before it was free from England...traveled out to Minnesota in covered wagons so pioneer stock.

BUT...we have one hitch with my mother's side...that above was all her from her mother's side. Her father's side is more of mystery as my mom found out that man my grandmother was married too is most likely not her father. There is some argument from other siblings etc so we cannot prove it since her mother and both men expected to be her father have long been dead.

On my Father's side, they also came here not as early as my mother's family but still were pioneers. They went back to Switzerland in 1800's. My grandparents came back out in early 1900's. They lived long healthy lives as are all their children so far.

I am glad that my mother cannot prove it came it did come from her side and if it does ever get actual proof that it runs in family genetically, I hope she is not alive. She feels bad enough that she lost a child and now has another that is more ill than her. I never want her to blame herself.

I was reading about the history of SLE...how they break it down into 3 periods, classical, neoclassical and modern. The term lupus is attributed to 12th-century physician Rogerius, who used it to describe the classic malar rash. The neoclassical period was heralded by Móric Kaposi's recognition in 1872 of the systemic manifestations of the disease. The modern period began in 1948 with the discovery of the LE cell (the lupus erythematosus cell—a misnomer, as it occurs with other diseases as well) and is characterised by advances in our knowledge of the pathophysiology and clinical-laboratory features of the disease, as well as advances in treatment.[74]

So if you go that far back what year are we speaking about? 1500's or longer? That is amazing that you would have medical history that long ago..was in a family bible...or lots of doctors in your family that kept healthy history for research?

I find it very interesting!

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They already HAVE proven the strong genetic qualities. No, no one ever asked to study my family. I'm in Canada where the medical system can't afford many studies. In the USA, the big pharmaceutical companies fund studies. Yes, the first known case in the family was in the 1700s. It was the wife of John Newton, who wrote "Amazing Grace". We got her death certificate because her husband was famous. I hope to find info further back. Her death certificate said "unknown illness causinf kidney failure, severe pain body wide, inflammation." They didn't have a definition of lupus back then, but since so many of my family members have it, we recognize the symptoms. Even in a medical dictonary from 1959, it says lupus is "tuberculosis of the skin". It has just been since the early 80s that they knew more about it. So maybe some secluded Dr. from the 1900s knew it was systemic, but not the whoke world. Maybe that Dr. was in Poland or Italy or something, and his work was not even accepted yet. Because obviously if the medical book from 1959 got it wrong, it was not common knowledge yet. The way we know about our other relatives having it is that my mother and grandmother and great grandmother, etc. knew the family members personally, at least 3 generations back for each of them. All my maternal uncles and Aunts have it, all my Mom's maternal uncles and aunts had it, except that one child in each family didn't get it. They got some other auto-immune disease. All my siblings have it. No one was spared. Some found out later in life, so maybe those who appeared to not have it, would have gotten it if they lived longer. My Mom has it, we live together and try to help each other. She doesn't blame herself a bit for passing it on, because it was not something she did on purpose. It just happened that way. We can only feel guilty for things we choose to do or not do. The rest is not our fault.

Take care!

Sheila