In the world of celebrities, there are diseases such as HIV/AIDS and breast cancer that are very “popular” and well understood, thanks to years of fundraising and awareness campaigns by stars. And there are those diseases that are less so. Lupus, an autoimmune disorder that can damage organs, is in the second category.

When Selena Gomez shocked her 126 million Instagram followers on Thursday by revealing that she had disappeared from the public eye this summer because she was getting a kidney transplant because of lupus, her fans had many questions.

Many wondered how someone so young and seemingly healthy — Gomez, 25, made numerous appearances this spring and looked radiant — could suddenly need such a radical surgery. Some commented that perhaps her case was atypical.


It’s the opposite. Lupus, in which the body’s immune system turns against itself, strikes women of child-bearing age at the highest rates. Those who are minorities are especially vulnerable. Only about 10 percent of white women with lupus progress to kidney failure; about 20 to 40 percent of African American or Hispanic women do so...http://www.newsyvoice.com/cologne-fans-storm-emirates-stadium/