Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a group of conditions which cause inflammation of the joints, seen in children below 16 years of age. The child may complain of joint pain, joint swelling, or difficulty in moving any joint which may or may not affect day-to-day activities. Some children may also display initial symptoms of fever and rash, with the joint problems appearing later as in systemic arthritis.
In JIA, symptoms may be present in many joints or only one joint in the initial stages. JIA is an auto-immune condition, resulting from a malfunctioning immune system attacking the body organs, in this case the joints and the eyes. There are various diagnoses of JIA such as Oligoarticular JIA, Polyarticular JIA, Systemic arthritis, Psoraitic arthritis, Enthesitis-related arthritis and Undifferentiated arthritis.