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information
- Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an inherited disorder, not an infectious one. It is a clinical diagnosis that can be confirmed by a gene mutation in the majority of cases.
- FMF is diagnosed in children with episodic fevers, often with pain in the abdomen, joints or chest. The fever of FMF is not contagious.
- Life-long treatment for inflammation can prevent long-term injury to internal organs.
Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is a genetic disorder that causes recurrent episodes of fever that are typically accompanied by pain in the abdomen, chest or joints. It most often occurs in individuals of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent, and the first episodes typically begin in childhood.
The disease generally affects people of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent, typically Sephardic Jews, Turks, Arabs and Armenians. Since the discovery of the gene defect, it is being diagnosed more frequently, even among populations where it was thought to be very rare, such as Italians, Greeks Ashkenazi Jews and even among Asian populations. FMF episodes start before the age of 20 years in approximately 90 percent of the patients. In about 75 percent of patients, fever appears before the age of 10 years. FMF can appear or be active in adults, but often the disease is milder and less obvious (and harder to diagnose) than in children.
Source: American College of Rheumatology
