Approximately, 1 out of every 1,000 children under the age of 16 suffers from Arthritis. It has become more common than Cystic Fibrosis or Diabetes. Chronic Childhood Arthritis is also referred to as Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis or Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, Juvenile Arthritis, or JA. For simplicity, I will refer to this disease as JA throughout the rest of my article.
JA is continuous inflammation of one or more joints lasting at least six weeks for which no other cause can be found. It may be part of many different illnesses and there is no test that can definitely diagnose it, therefore, other causes of joint pain and swelling must be excluded by testing. JA does not always present itself with pain in a child and can be hard to detect, even to a qualified physician. Sometimes the only indication a child may have this disease is the child experiences mild stiffening of their joints upon rising from rest, limping, or difficulty using one of their arms or legs. A child's doctor usually observes carefully for any signs of joint swelling or decrease in mobility, which indicate that the joints are inflamed.
JA may occur after an infection or injury, but normally such illnesses do not cause JA. It is currently believed a child's immune system may be responsible for the inflammation of a child's joints, associated with JA. In a child with JA, the immune system seems to be overactive, and respond inappropriately to infection, taking the signal from something in the body as being an infection, causing continuous inflammation. This inflammation results in warm, stiff, swollen and often painful joints.
One of the unique qualities of JA is the effect of inflammation on a growing child. Occasionally, if JA is severe, a slow growth of the child or individual joints may occur. A child's joints that have been affected by JA will return to normal once the disease has been brought under control and has improved. Therefore, a child's physician will pay careful attention to all aspects of their growth.
