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For about 50 years there has been no drug specifically available for the treatment of Lupus. But in March this year, after 10 years of research and tests, the United States has become the first country to release Benlysta, the first drug for Lupus. Our correspondent met with some of the experts.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease, whereby the immune system attacks and destroys its own healthy body tissue.

In early March this year, through the FDA or Food and Drug Administration, the United States became the first country in the world to release Benlysta for lupus patients. Although it is not a cure, but it has given hope to Odapus, a name for those who suffer from lupus.

[Cynthia Aranow, MD, Investigator Autoimmune Disease Center, Feinstein Institute]:
"Benlysta is important because it is the first drug that has been approved for Lupus in over 50 years."

Jamila has had Lupus since 1989. Back then, the doctor misdiagnosed her three times before finding out she had lupus. Her symptoms— painful joints all over her body.

[Jamila Anderson, Odapus / Lupus Patient]:
"Lupus is kind of an illness that has been hidden in the media. For many years, it wasn't something that's widely talked about, there wasn't a big telethon, or anybody really bringing it to the forefront so that people knew about it, it seems to be an illness that you only knew about it if someone in your family had it."

Lupus is known as women's disease, because 90 percent of the patients are women. The majority of suffers are Asian, African, and Hispanic. The disease is rare among Caucasian women.

According to Doctor Cynthia Aranow, an investigator for autoimmune diseases at the Feinstein Institute, genes and living environment are factors that trigger Lupus, but the exact cause is not yet known.