A team of international scientists has recently determined the association between gout and risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related death in a large cohort of patients. Their findings reveal that gout can significantly increase the risk of COVID-19 and related mortality, with women having a higher risk than men. The study is currently available on the medRxiv preprint server.
Nearly 30% of those with rheumatic disease saw employment change early in COVID-19 pandemic
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Baseline medication use is associated with COVID-19 severity in people with rheumatic diseases
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Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with rituximab (Rituxan) or JAK inhibitors had more severe COVID-19 disease courses, analysis of data from a large registry found.
In an adjusted multivariate analysis compared with patients on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, those on rituximab had a fourfold higher risk for worse disease (OR 4.15, 95% CI 3.16-5.44), while those on JAK inhibitors had a twofold greater risk (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.60-2.65), reported Jeffrey Sparks, MD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, at the European League Against Rheumatism virtual congress. As we all know, there has been intense interest during the pandemic in repurposing immune modulating drugs for COVID-19 treatment, he said.
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Since the COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for use in the United States, people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their doctors have had questions about whether the shots are as effective if they take common medications to control their disease.
People on immune-suppressing medications were excluded from the clinical trials. It has been unclear whether the vaccine behaves the same in someone on these drugs as it does in the healthy people studied in the trials.
Now, answers are starting to emerge, and it appears those concerns may have been warranted. A study published May 25 in the
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases found that up to one-third of people taking methotrexate failed to achieve an adequate immune response to the shot.