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Arthritis also affects young people

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Arthritis can be treated early. Photo: Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: Some people, especially the younger ones, take lightly the symptoms of arthritis, thinking that the ailment only affects the older folks when it can also affect them, if not detected and treated early.

University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) director Prof Dr Tunku Kamarul Zaman Tunku Zainol Abidin said the disease could be treated if patients were able to identify the symptoms early as it would facilitate the specialist in providing suitable treatment.

“It is wrong to think that arthritis is a condition affecting only the elderly people. It can happen to anyone, including the young people and it is harder for those with career because of the pain in their joints.

“Intensive treatment for the ailment is not cheap, it can cost about RM50,000 a year. Hence, the need for those with the symptoms to seek proper treatment with a rheumatologist, including at UMMC,” he told Bernama when met at the UM Arthritis Awareness Fun Run here, today.

He expressed the need to intensify awareness among the public on the disease and its treatment.

Arthritis can be treated early. Photo: Bernama

Meanwhile, a consultant rheumatologist at UMMC, Associate Prof Dr Raja Jasmin Begum Raja Mohamed said among the early symptoms of arthritis are morning stiffness and pain in the joints, swelling of the joints due to inflammation and spinal pain.

She advised those having the symptoms to seek immediate treatment, adding that non-critical arthritis cases are generally treated using conventional medicine, while biological treatment (genetic engineering application involving proteins that are naturally present in the body) is used for critical cases.

“Conventional medication is usually in the form of oral tablets. If it does not work, the patient will be treated with biological medicines, either orally or by injection, but this is very expensive,” she said.

According to Dr Raja Jasmin Begum, UMMC receives and treats nearly 2,400 outpatients for arthritis annually and about 200 of them require biological treatment.

“About 70 per cent of our patients are in the 30s to 50s age group. This is a major concern for us as they are mostly from working-class and their family are dependent on them,” she said. – Bernama

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