Pain in many joints

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is another type of arthritis that causes pain and swelling in the joints usually the hands, feet and wrists.

The pain may come and go in the early phases, with long periods between attacks.

Itcan leave you feeling generally unwell and tired. .

Psoriatic arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis affects up to one in five people with psoriasis .This type of arthritis is unpredictable, but flare-ups canusually be managed with treatment.

Like other types of arthritis, it means that one or more of your joints are inflamed and become swollen, stiff, painful and difficult to move.

A viral infection that causes arthritis

Examplesof viralinfections which can cause pain in the joints and symptoms of a fever include:

• viral hepatitis liver inflammation caused by a virus
• rubella a viral infection that used to be common in children

A disease of the connective tissue

Widespread joint painis sometimes a sign of a disease that affects almost all the organs of the body, such as:

• lupus where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells, tissue and organs
• scleroderma where the immune system attacks connective tissue underneath the skin, causing hard, thickened areas of skin

Less common causes

Widespread joint pain can less commonly be caused by:

• a rarer type of arthritis such as ankylosing spondylitis , juvenile arthritis or reactive arthritis
• Behetssyndrome a rare and poorly understood condition that causes inflammation of the blood vessels
• Henoch-Schnlein purpura a rare condition, usually seen in children, that causes blood vessels to become inflamed
• cancer
• some treatments including steroid therapy ,isoniazid andhydralazine
• hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathya rare disorder that causes clubbing of the fingers, seen in people withlung cancer
• sarcoidosis a rare condition that causes small patches of tissue to develop in the organs