Open AccessThe COVID-19 pandemic: an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis
Author(s) -
Arun Kumar Tripathy,
Nitish Swain,
Bhawna Gupta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
future virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.462
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1746-0808
pISSN - 1746-0794
DOI - 10.2217/fvl-2020-0393
Subject(s) - hydroxychloroquine , medicine , rheumatoid arthritis , pandemic , pneumonia , chloroquine , covid-19 , population , immunology , malaria , intensive care medicine , disease , environmental health , infectious disease (medical specialty)
COVID-19 is a respiratory infection similar to viral pneumonia and is caused by SARS-CoV-2. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine make up the major part of the treatment regimen for the management of COVID-19 infections, which are also commonly used in treatment of patients with malaria as well as autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this review, we analyzed the scientific evidences pertaining to any possible association of SARS-CoV-2 infection with RA. We thus believe that people predisposed to RA carry a higher infection risk than the general population both due to the iatrogenic effects of the RA related drug therapy. Thus COVID-19 pandemic may bring a higher risk of health emergency in complex diseases such as RA.