Medical experts raise concern on prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis

Medical experts have raised awareness about the prevalence and social burden of rheumatoid arthritis in the society.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the small joints of the body.

Speaking on Thursday during a media roundtable hosted by Pfizer, a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, the healthcare experts emphasised on the management of rheumatoid arthritis to prevent disease progression.

Olaosebikan Hakeem, a rheumatologist at the Lagos State University College of Medicine, and Uyiekpan Ima-Edomwonyi, a rheumatologist with Lagos University Teaching Hospital, shared medical insights on the condition alongside the latest clinical advances that seek to achieve better patient outcomes.

“Rheumatoid arthritis affects the small joints of the hand, wrist and feet before affecting larger joints and if left untreated can cause deformity and disability,” Ima-Edomwonyi said.

“With debilitating symptoms that include pain and stiffness, people with rheumatoid arthritis are seen to have lowered functional status. This disability can lead to loss of career and sources of income, which is a particular problem in low income settings. For a certain subset of the population, jobs in Africa involve a level of manual labour and the resource–starved African states can afford only limited or no welfare support for disabled individuals.

“Along with the increase in non–communicable diseases (NCD) in developing countries, an increase in rheumatoid arthritis occurrence could stress medical services that are already struggling with a high burden of acute infectious illness to an extent that they may be unable to cope with the fast changing patterns of disease distribution seen in Africa today. However, healthcare professionals, general physicians and rheumatologists need to identify Rheumatoid arthritis early and commence appropriate therapy as soon as possible.

“Epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis is difficult to establish in developing countries due to very few community/population-based studies. A substantial decline in rheumatoid arthritis incidence over time, with a shift toward a more elderly age of onset, was a consistent finding across several studies. Also notable was the virtual absence of epidemiologic data for the developing countries of the world.”

On his part, Hakeem said the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is ideally done as soon as possible when the patient starts with disease symptoms.

He added that the aim is to get the disease into remission or to have minimal signs and symptoms.

“This is to decrease the progression of joint disease as the disease process can cause progressive damage to joints with resultant loss of function, which in many patients, will mean that they are unable to fulfil work obligations or cope with activities at home,” he said.

“Adequate treatment is also important to try to prevent or lessen the severity of co-morbidities, particularly cardiovascular disease, which is still a major cause of mortality in these patients. Apart from treating the rheumatoid disease, the patient should ideally be treated by a multidisciplinary team to address many other associations of this disease which range from psychological help with anxiety and depression to guidance with physical therapy by physiotherapists or biokineticists and help with activities of daily living by occupational therapists.”

Kodjo Soroh, country medical director, Pfizer East and West Africa , added that rheumatoid arthritis remains one of the most common rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (RMDs) in the region.

He said there is hope as the firm will continue to raise awareness around the treatments available presently, while working closely with the healthcare community to ensure early diagnosis, increased patient access and medication adherence.

“There is Project Afya, a patient assistance program aimed at improving access to life-saving medications and boosting cancer care and autoimmune disease management. In partnership with IQVIA, the platform is helping to reduce therapy costs for eligible patients as Rheumatologists identify patients for enrolment into the program,” Soroh said.