What is immune thrombocytopenia a disease? The earliest ITP was called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Idiopathic in medicine means a disease for which no cause can be found. But as medicine has progressed, ITP is now called immune thrombocytopenic trait. This is because it has been found that this thrombocytopenia is caused by an autoimmune abnormality. What are the differences between ITP in children and adults? The difference in the disease is reflected in the difference in the immune system. In adults, the immune system is very well established like a well-built army, and diseases of the immune system are not easily treated, so the course of ITP in adults is longer. Children are still growing and developing and their immune system is not yet perfect, so it may be transient. We all know that children are not susceptible to illness in the first six months of life because they have antibodies in their bodies from their mothers, for example, if their mother had scarlet fever and recovered, they have antibodies against scarlet fever in their bodies, and children also have antibodies in their bodies. There are two reasons why children between the ages of six months and three years old are prone to illness, the first being that their own stores of antibodies have been depleted. The other reason is that children need to keep training their troops (immune system) by stimulating their bodies to produce antibodies through pathogenic microorganisms such as viruses. When the immune system is trained, they are less likely to get sick. So as the child grows and develops and the immune system improves, then some transient immune diseases may heal on their own. About 2/3 of children with ITP have a self-limiting disease (the disease heals on its own) and may return to normal 2 to 6 months after the disease. In contrast, only 1/3 of adults may heal. This is due to differences in the immune system. Is there a high incidence of ITP in children? The incidence of ITP in children is similar to that of adults, about 3-4 per 100,000. It is not as common as a cold or fever, but it is not uncommon. What causes the disease in children? External factors work through internal factors. Those factors that destabilize the body’s immune system are external factors, such as vaccinations, viral infections, etc. Endogenous factors are those that make a child’s immune system particularly sensitive to these exogenous factors, and the combination of endogenous and exogenous factors triggers the process of thrombocytopenia.