At LUPUS EUROPE, we do care about your data and your privacy. We do this through limiting the amount of information we collect and retain to the strict minimum to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and to enable us to serve you at best.

Website and Blog purpose:

LUPUS EUROPE’s website and blog presents the activities of the organisation and aims to provide free information for our member groups, people living with lupus, their relatives and friends.  LUPUS EUROPE’s  website and blog provides information to help capacity building and to keep visitors up to date with the most current developments in the lupus area, and to link them with other trustable sites providing such information.

Confidentiality of Website collected information:

Any information such as email addresses, telephone numbers and other related contact details that is collected through our website is kept strictly confidential and will not be shared with any third parties, unless required by law. Any information used is solely for the purpose of our own statistics. We do NOT keep sensitive information such as age, gender, whether you are a lupus patient or a family/friend, …. We do not give, transmit or sell any of our data to anyone, and do our best to keep your data confidential. 

LUPUS EUROPE Address database:

If you register to receive information from us by e-mail, we will keep the information collected in a mailing software (currently Mailchimp). This data collected is limited to the data we need to send you in a friendly way the most appropriate news : name and address, email, phone number, organisation and role,… You can limit further this information, unsubscribe or adjust any incorrect data at any time with the link  we attach to our mailing or by sending a request to secretariat@lupus-europe.org.

Transparency of Funding:

This website has been designed Pro Bono by Setfire a web design company that is not otherwise involved in LUPUS EUROPE’s activities. Our Web and blog on going operation costs (such as domain name registration, hosting etc.), as part of our operational activities, are funded by unrestricted grants from sponsors in line with our code of ethics and funding framework. Our website does not host any form of advertisement.

Editorial Content:

The editorial content of this website is managed and Controlled by LUPUS EUROPE’s Board of trustees. Most authors of this website are not medical doctors.  Any supplementary content that may be added which has been written by a medical doctor will be clearly stated.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Additional information

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

We do segregate the issuance of mailing or information based on the preferences you have indicated in your profile, as well as based on the type of relation we have with you (as a member delegate, an industry partner, a health care professional, or a friend, for example). Aside from this simple sorting, we do not perform any type of profiling using the data you have provided us or that has been collected as mentioned above

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🇨🇭 Spotlight on Lupus Switzerland!

At our #lupusconvention, Lupus Switzerland presented a powerful poster showing the cover of their latest magazine, highlighting their commitment to diversity and inclusion within the lupus community.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Although around 9% of their members are men, this was the first time in more than ten years and 22 issues that the topic had been addressed. A meaningful step towards ensuring everyone feels seen and represented.

🖨️ With more than 600 copies printed and distributed, this initiative helps raise awareness, challenge assumptions and promote inclusion across their community.

👏 Congratulations to Lupus Switzerland!
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🚨 Have you ever felt that your symptoms or treatment needs were taken less seriously because of your body size?

😪 For many patients, discussions about symptoms, pain, or treatment options are overshadowed by weight. Medication side effects, inflammation, fatigue, and reduced mobility are often ignored, while responsibility is placed on the individual. This can have real consequences for clinical decisions, referrals, and quality of care.

🌈 We are extremely proud of our Chair, Jeanette Andersen, for addressing this reality in her article “More Than a Number: Weight Bias in Rheumatology Care”, published in the special #EMEUNEWS issue on #Obesity and #RheumaticDiseases.

Thank you, Anastasia Madenidou and EMEUNET, for giving space to this important perspective and for inviting Jeanette to contribute.

Read the full article here: emeunews.org/2025/12/10/more-than-a-number-weight-bias-in-rheumatology-care/
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🚨 Have you ever f

📌 Reminder for our Youth Group Webinar!

🚫 Alcohol, recreational drugs & lupus: what are the risks?
🌟 What young people living with lupus need to know to protect their health.

Lupus Europe’s Youth Group invites you to an open, evidence-based discussion with Dr Luca Moroni focused on how alcohol and recreational substances can interact with lupus, treatments, and long-term health.

We will talk clearly about:

🚨 Known risks and current uncertainties
🚨 Interactions with lupus treatments
🚨 Real-life situations often left out of the conversation

😱 Why talk about this?

Because young people sometimes make choices that can carry real health risks, and they don’t always feel able to tell their loved ones or doctors everything.

‼️ Alcohol and recreational substances are part of many social environments. When lupus is involved, lack of reliable information can increase risks.

💁‍♀️ Talking about this before helps:

•⁠ ⁠Reduce avoidable risks.
•⁠ ⁠Encourage safe and informed decisions.
•⁠ ⁠Create a safe space for questions that are often left unasked.

🌈 That’s why this webinar exists: to anticipate real situations, NOT encourage them, and provide clear, evidence-based information for young people living with lupus.

🗓 29 January 2026
⏰ 19:00 CET
💻 Online

📩 Register now by emailing secretariat@lupus-europe.org

⏳ There’s still time to join!
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📌 Reminder for ou

🇳🇴 Spotlight on Lupus Norway!

At our #LupusConvention, Lupus Norway shared how they continue to support people living with lupus through information, education and strong collaboration with healthcare professionals.

🏥 Every year, the University Hospital in Oslo organises a meeting for patients with connective tissue diseases, including lupus. Lupus Norwa has an information stand that offers reliable resources and answers questions from anyone interested in SLE.

📘 They have also published two new brochures to help patients better understand and manage life with lupus.:
“Practical tips for improving your daily life” and “Find out more about SLE”.

📰 To keep their community informed, Lupus Norway publishes a newsletter twice a year, focusing on key lupus-related topics such as research projects, sun protection, and patient stories. They also share updates about their participation in conferences and meetings, including EULAR, helping members stay up to date and engaged.

👏 Congratulations, and thank you, Lupus Norway, for your commitment. You are a great example of how patient organisations can make a difference
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