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REACTIVE ARTHRITIS STUDIES
I find it amazing that many doctors are not aware of the scientific literature showing that almost any chronic infection can cause your joints to hurt. When this happens, if you are not treated early with long-term antibiotics, your joints can be destroyed permanently because damaged cartilage can never heal. The April issue of Current Opinions in Rheumatology has many articles on specific bacteria that have been shown repeatedly to cause arthritis.
One of the most common causes of arthritis is chlamydia (1). First you get a cough, sore throat, burning in your stomach , diarrhea, burning on urination, vaginal burning, pain in the testicle, muscle pain or nerve damage. If you let these symptoms go on for a few months, your joints can start to hurt. If you are treated then, you can be cured. If the arthritis is allowed to continue, you can suffer permanent damage to your joints.
Human parvovirus B19 also causes arthritis (2). The most common syndrome caused by this virus is erythema infectiosum (fifth disease), high fever and rash febrile occurring primarily in children. Recent studies have shown that parvovirus B19 can cause acute arthritis and occasionally a chronic arthropathy, both in children and adults. Recent studies also indicate a possible connective tissue disease-like syndrome with parvoviral infections. The common features of this syndrome are a red rash on the cheeks, joint pains, muscle and joint pains and a positive ANA blood test that deceives doctors into thinking that the disease is a life-threatening disease called lupus.
Hepatitis C almost always causes muscle and joint pains (3). It frequently causes abnormal blood tests and symptoms that are exactly the same as are found in most auto-immune diseases. (mixed cryoglobulinemia, vasculitis (bleeding into the skin), dry mouth, and eyes, and diffuse muscle and joint pains. No major therapeutic trials in HCV-associated arthritis were reported in the past 2 years.
For more than 80 years, doctors have described reactive arthritis, joint pains that follow any chronic infection (4). People who suffer reactive arthritis often have a positive blood test called HLA-B27 which is a surface protein that is exactly the same as the surface protein on E. Cole, Bacteroides, Klebsiella and other bacteria that are found in virtually all human beings. The simplistic explanation for reactive arthritis is that when these intestinal bacteria get into the blood stream, causing the immune system to produce proteins called antibodies that attach to and kill the bacteria. But since the human cells also have the same surface proteins, a person's own immunity also attack his own joints and makes him sick.
Doctors have known since 1940 that arthritis often follows an infection with the bacteria called beta strep group B, particularly in children (5). This syndrome is different from rheumatic fever because it occurs only a few days after a child develops a sore throat and fever and is cured with any antibiotic that kill streptococcus.
Lyme disease (LD) is the most common tick-borne arthritis in North America (6). So far, 10 different Borrelia species have been described. A long term follow-up study of children treated for Lyme Disease indicated that they can be cured with long-term antibiotics. A safe vaccine for the prevention of LD has been approved in adults. Preliminary data suggested that the vaccine is safe and effective.
There are hundreds of other germs that have been reported to be associated with arthritis including mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus and so forth. See reports #J106 and #J159.
1) RD Inman, JA WhittumHudson, HR Schumacher, AP Hudson. Chlamydia and associated arthritis. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 254-262.
2) TL Moore. Parvovirus-associated arthritis. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 289-294.
3) D Buskila. Hepatitis C-associated arthritis. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 295-299.
4) A Toivanen, P Toivanen. Reactive arthritis. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 300-305.
5) EM Ayoub, HA Majeed. Poststreptococcal reactive arthritis. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 306-310.
6) J Evans. Lyme disease. Current Opinion in Rheumatology, 2000, Vol 12, Iss 4, pp 311-317
Checked 9/3/05