[ ARC forum 2 ]

Re: It (most probably) doesn't.

Written by kevin page at 20 Jul 2002 17:16:34:

As an answer to: It (most probably) doesn't. written by Paul B. at 19 Jul 2002 23:34:31:

>> I have to ask this question. Can someone get BXO from an another person, say through handshake or sharing soaps etc etc?
>Essentially, no.

I feel much better now after reading your answer that the disease cannot be transferred via sharing things in the family.

>"BXO" appears to be an auto-immune disease - the body's immune system takes a dislike to the particular piece of skin, and starts to attempt to destroy it (albeit, not particularly enthusiastically), causing degrees of scarring as a result. The process is similar to rejection of transplanted organs (but not as vigorous) and is the main cause of juvenile diabetes (the body destroys its own pancreatic islets - which are necessary to produce insulin) and thyroid disease (the damage to the thyroid causes first, overactivity which results in swelling and too much thyroid hormone, then the thyroid gland "burns out" and becomes shrunken and inactive with too little thyroid hormone produced and requiring this to be taken as a supplement).

So if a person has BXO , his chance of having diabete is also very big ?
I think I need a blood test.

What is the side effect of long term use of the Steroid Cream ?
I find it strange after using the steroid cream. I always feel so sleepy very early in the evening and don't want to wake up late in the morning.
I am not sure it this is one of the side effect of the cream.

>None of these diseases has yet been proven to be due to an infectious agent (virus) but they are inherited and run in families.
>But this is not to say it definitely isn't infectious. Since BXO is so uncommon and not life-threatening, there appears to have been comparatively little research on it. Some of the articles on treating it (as in the link I previously posted) suggest good results from long-term antibiotics, implying a possible link with organisms such as Chlamydia or spirochaetes, which could be sexually-transmitted, and I would not be at all surprised if it responded to anti-viral agents (which might not have been tried as they are much more expensive) and was thereby related to herpesvirus.
>On the other hand, as it is reported to occur in children, who are we hope very unlikely to suffer sexually-transmitted diseases, that makes it pretty unlikely also.

So much damage will this disease do ? Can it spread all the way to other parts of the body ? On many websites, it suggests that circumcising the foreskin might take care of the problem but in my case it didn't help much since I still have BXO. My Dermatologist said that I have to live with it for the rest of my life :-(


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