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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.
if this was an accidental lab leak, that has happened over the decades. jake? tens of millions of americans have been vaccinated whom still might be potentially unprotected. tell us about these people and what can be done for them. it s interesting. when she is vaccines came out there was, as there should have been, jubilation. these incredibly effective, 95% effective vaccines were out there for all of us to take. it turns out that tens of millions of americans, it may not be working so well for them. that is because they re immune compromised often because of drugs they have to take. these drugs are great and may be helping them but it may have blunted the effectiveness of the covid vaccine. let s look at these drugs, people with psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, people with cancer and other diseases take rituximab.
Immunosuppressive therapies may be linked to severe COVID-19 in those with multiple sclerosis
In the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), patients with coexisting medical conditions have been noted to be at a higher risk of progressive and severe disease. Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), who are often on immunosuppressive therapy, may be among these high-risk groups.
A new study, released on the
medRxiv preprint server, examines the associations between immunosuppressive disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) used in MS with adverse outcomes in an international cohort of patients with MS COVID-19.
Study details
The study included over 2,300 subjects from 28 countries all over the world. Over 70% had confirmed, and the rest were suspected to have, SARS-CoV-2 infection. All patients were 18 years or more.