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Arthritis - more than just a senior citizen's creaky condition. Lorna Siggins reports

Arthritis - more than just a senior citizen's creaky condition. Lorna Siggins reports

It hits one in seven Irish people, one in three families, and over 5,000 children contract the juvenile form. Arthritis is not just a senior citizen's "creaky condition". It can mean chronic pain for many, while some severe cases have to learn to live with a permanent disability.

As Ray O'Connor of the Arthritis Foundation of Ireland's (AFI) Galway branch puts it, it can "deform the limbs of a toddler, force a college student to undergo hip surgery, fuse a father's spine, shorten a young mother's life expectancy, cause employees to lose their jobs, and confine a grandparent to a hospital bed, perhaps for life".

Nearly 40,000 sufferers are estimated to have the condition in the Western Health Board (WHB) area alone - a geographical area covering the three counties of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

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Early diagnosis and treatment is vital to avoid limb deformity, while new drugs and treatments can almost arrest the disease. Yet there is only one public health rheumatologist in the WHB region, with a waiting list extending over four years, O'Connor points out.

Next Sunday, April 4th, the AFI's Galway branch is holding an information day to make the public aware of new treatments - and the possible impact of gene therapy and stem cell research.

"One of the problems with arthritis is that it generally gets very little press," he notes. "It's not seen as a crisis disease and, while debilitating, does not grab the headlines like some other life-threatening conditions," Mr O'Connor explains. "For those who have it, however, it is a very real problem, causing severe chronic pain and can lead, when untreated, to a very poor quality of life."

Among the team of speakers booked for April 4th are Dr Ronan Kavanagh, consultant rheumatologist at the Bon Secours Hospital in Galway, who will talk about the disease's causes and modern best practice. Michael O'Sullivan, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Galway's Merlin Park Hospital, will talk about the change in orthopaedics. New treatments will also be addressed by Prof Tim O'Brien and Prof David Barry of University College Hospital, Galway.

The AFI Galway branch information day starts next Sunday, April 4th, at 2 p.m. in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill.

Further information is available from Ray O'Connor at 087-2401133 and Noel O'Flaherty at 091-592180.