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Lupus (pronounced: loo-pus) is a disease that involves the immune system and affects about 1.5 million Americans; nearly 90% of those diagnosed with the disease are female. Normally, a person's immune system works by producing immunity cells and antibodies, special substances that fight germs and infections.

But when a person has lupus, the immune system goes into overdrive and can't tell the difference between some of the body's normal, healthy cells and germs that can cause infection. So the immune system responds by making autoantibodies that attack the body's normal cells.

The three types of lupus are:

1. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (pronounced: er-uh-thee-muh-toe-sus)

Also called SLE, this is the type of lupus that most people mean when they talk about the disease. It was given its name by a 19th century French doctor who thought that the facial rash of some people with lupus looked like the bite or scratch of a wolf ("lupus" is Latin for wolf and "erythematosus" is Latin for red).

SLE is the most serious form of lupus. Like Chantelle, about 15% of the people who have SLE first start to feel sick when they are teens. SLE can affect the skin, joints, and tendons. It may also affect organs like the brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys.

2. Discoid (pronounced: dis-koyd) Lupus

This type of lupus is a skin disease that causes a rash on the face, neck, scalp, and ears. It is a much more rare form of lupus than SLE, although about 10% of people with discoid lupus will develop a mild form of SLE. It doesn't affect other body organs the way that SLE can. The rash of discoid lupus can cause scarring, though.

3. Drug-Induced Lupus

This type of lupus is caused by a reaction to certain kinds of medicines. For example, some types of antiseizure medicines and acne medicines can cause this kind of lupus in teens. Drug-induced lupus is similar to SLE in the ways it affects the body, but once a person stops taking the medicine, the symptoms usually go away.
What Causes Lupus?

No one really knows what causes lupus. Researchers think that some people may be more likely to get it due to things that are out of their control, like:

    * gender: Many more women get lupus than men; there are 10 women to every one man with lupus.
    * estrogen: This female hormone may be a factor in lupus — almost all women who get lupus are of childbearing age.
    * race/ethnicity: Lupus occurs more often in African-American, Asian-American, Latin-American, and Native-American women than in non-Hispanic Caucasian women.
    * family history/genetics: About 10% of people with lupus have a family member with lupus.
    * major stress or infection: If people have the genetic tendency to get lupus, extreme stress or an infection may trigger the disease — but the blueprint for lupus has to already be there. One thing researchers know about lupus is that it is not contagious. You can't catch any of the three types of lupus from another person. And although lupus involves the immune system, it is not the same as other diseases that involve the immune system, like AIDS.