Implications of COVID-19 Infection for Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases

After a COVID-19 infection, patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) were at higher risk of greater disease severity, hospitalization, requiring assisted ventilation and death, according to the findings of a recent study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Up until now, “the impact of COVID-19 on morbidity and mortality among patients with IRD compared with the general population in the different periods of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was not known,” the researchers explained. The new findings suggest that despite effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among most patients with IRD, “some patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis are associated with higher number of comorbidities and have a substantial risk of COVID-19 leading to death compared with the general population.”

The nationwide, population-based register study drew data from March 2020 through January 2023. Patients with IRD (n=66,840) were matched with healthy controls (n=668,400).

For patients with IRD and a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, the risk of hospitalization was more than the healthy controls (IRR 2.11, 95% CI 1.99 to 2.23). The same was true for the risk of severity of COVID-19 (IRR 2.18, 95% CI 1.94 to 2.45), risk of assisted ventilation (IRR 2.33, 95% CI 1.89 to 2.87), and the risk of COVID-19 infection leading to death (IRR 1.98, 95% CI 1.69 to 2.33).

“Patients with IRD are well advised to strictly follow hygiene and distance measures to avoid infections with SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers concluded.

Reference:
Svensson A, Emborg H, Bartels L et al. Outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals with and without inflammatory rheumatic diseases: A Danish nationwide cohort study. Ann of the Rheum Dis. 2023; 82:1359-1367. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ard-2023-223974