Your child’s doctor will try to work out what has caused their glomerulonephritis. Possible causes include:

• a problem with your child’s immune system, which normally protects the body against infection and disease. Sometimes the immune system cannot recognise the body’s own cells and attacks them as if they were invaders like germs. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) the immune system attacks different parts of the body, including the kidneys.
• an infection. Post-infectious glomerulonephritis (PIGN) happens in a few children after they have an infection – usually in the throat, nose or sinuses, or occasionally the skin. If the infection is caused by a type of bacteria called Streptococcus, it may be called post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (PSGN).
• as part of another condition. A small number of children who have HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C, get glomerulonephritis.
• In rare cases, glomerulonephritis is hereditary, which means your child inherited it from one or both of their parents.

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