Advancing the standard of care for lupus in Sri Lanka

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with a female preponderance, predominantly affecting those of reproductive age. Among Asians, disease severity is intermediate between that of Caucasians and African Americans, with the latter having the most severe disease phenotype. Compared with other rheumatological diseases, the introduction of new, effective medications for the management of SLE lags far behind. Despite this, large-scale, high-quality research over the past few decades has added extensive new knowledge on how to manage lupus effectively to reduce mortality and morbidity, using available medications, close disease monitoring, and more proactive patient involvement in care decisions. As a country with excellent performance on healthcare indicators in the region, it is imperative to explore ways to improve disease-related outcomes for patients with SLE. Here, we discuss how we can achieve that utilising the limited resources at our disposal.