Who thinks gout is contagious?

[Keith Taylor]

I just noticed a lot of people are asking “Is gout contagious?”

My immediate reaction is “It can’t be!”
But, is that true?

Then, I wondered if secondary gout might be caused by a contagious disease. But, I can’t find any examples of an infectious disease that causes gout. However, that’s a difficult topic to research. So, do you know or suspect a specific disease that can cause gout? If so, please let me know so that I can research it thoroughly.

I know that, before modern medicine explained uric acid metabolism problems, many thought gout was contagious. But, this view has died out. Except for one researcher. Constantini maintains that gout is fundamentally a fungal disease. Because in his writings about fungalbionics he notes:

Lindsay (1913) cited Boerhaave’s view that gout was a contagious disease and Van Swieten’s cases where gout developed in women who had nursed their husbands through attacks of gout. Perhaps Hippocrates was correct …

Do you think gout is contagious? Please tell me why.

[Keith Taylor]

To answer my own question….

In my opinion, gout cannot be contagious. Because it is only excess uric acid that causes gout. Then, when we lower uric acid to safe levels, gout symptoms stop. So, I think belief in infectious gout is out of date. But, there is one dangerous aspect of infection that we can link to gout.

Gout diagnosis is usually very easy. But, sometimes, a disease can mimic gout. Then that can lead to wrong treatments. As is the case with Septic Arthritis.

I don’t know how many cases of septic arthritis occur each year. But, it is definitely a disease that can be contagious. To explain, I looked at a case where the patient had both gout and septic arthritis. Because it highlights the dangers:

For septic arthritis of the knee, such managements as intravenous infusion of antibiotics, surgical treatment of local tissues affected and immobilization of the affected joint will result in satisfactory effects. In contrast, improper surgical treatment and abuse of antibiotics will worsen knee joint infection, and even cause infection spread and death.

Contagious Septic Arthritis Mimics Gout

Septic Arthritis References
[1] Duan, Xiaojun, Liu Yang, and Peiyuan Xia. “Septic arthritis of the knee caused by antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in a gout patient: a rare case report.” Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery 130.3 (2010): 381-384.

[Keith Taylor]

Now that I can see thousands of interested visitors here, I have done some more research.

Specifically, I went looking for infectious diseases that might be related to high uric acid or gout. Because that would explain my ideas from my original post. But, the results I found don’t shine much light on the problem.

Firstly, I looked at Pyelonephritis, which is the medical term for a kidney infection. But, the research I found was not conclusive or specific. Next, I looked at HIV. But again, there is no clear link. Because the most likely gout cause is HIV treatments. Rather than the infectious disease itself.

So, it remains an interesting topic. But there is little evidence to show that secondary gout is contagious. However, there might be a small number of edge cases that I haven’t found yet.

To conclude:
1. Gout is definitely not contagious.
2. Infectious diseases might cause secondary gout. But I cannot support this with case results yet.
3. If you have septic arthritis, but you think it is gout, you might spread that disease.

[Gary Cork]

Hi Keith, I want to respond to the idea that other diseases may cause gout. I asked a well respected Chinese doctor who is also a western doctor about why I have gout.
I had jaundice at the ago of 10, and was an RH negative baby ( I was the second child, my brother who is older was healthy, 2 children after me were still born because of the RH negative factor).
This 3rd generation Chinese doctor said that the RH negative factor had compromised my liver (hence the yellow jaundice at the age of 10).
No one else in my family has gout, which is why I was curious about getting it.
I am curious if other sufferers also have had gout and a=were RH negative babies.

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