The Vasculitis Foundation has released a video called “Connect the Dots” to raise awareness about vasculitis within the medical community, reports Newswise.
Vasculitis is a frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed condition, which involves the immune system attacking healthy blood vessels causing their inflammation and narrowing. Certain medicines, pre-existing diseases, or infections can all trigger it. There are several different types of vasculitis, each with their own pattern of symptoms, causes, and typical demographic of patients. Some of the forms include Churg-Strauss syndrome, GPA (formerly known as Wegener’s), Henoch-Schönlein purpura, and giant cell arteritis, although there are many more. The effects of these conditions vary significantly between patients, with some developing milder skin conditions, and others suffering organ damage. Fast and accurate diagnoses are important to enable effective treatments at an earlier disease stage.
The short video is part of a larger campaign by the Vasculitis Foundation for the Vasculitis Awareness Month 2018 in May. The awareness campaign is designed to help achieve the organisation’s goals of earlier diagnoses, better treatments, and developing a cure. The foundation is also encouraging engagement with their goals through webinars, social media artwork, and research participation, amongst other resources.
The president of the Vasculitis Foundation’s Board of Directors, Karen Hirsch, was involved in organising the video. She says that when her son was diagnosed with a form of vasculitis called GPA (or Wegener’s), doctors did not recognise the condition at first so treated each symptom individually rather than the whole condition. The ‘Connect the Dots’ video was created to raise awareness of the disease in medical communities. The style of the video, a short and colourful animation, was chosen because Ms Hirsch believed that it was the most effective medium. She says that she hopes the video is widely shared to reach as many medical professionals as possible, including doctors, ENTs, dermatologists, allergists, and nephrologists – all the people who are likely to come across patients with the condition.
