National Briefing with CDC: COVID-19 & Autoimmune Disease

[Sally Furniss]

National Briefing with CDC: COVID-19 & Autoimmune Disease

Friday, April 3, 2020

[Sally Furniss]

A few notes

Georgina Peacock (CDC)

Review of main symptoms of Covid-19

Review of basic hygiene and physical distancing

Immunocompromised potentially remain infectious longer ( this is seen with other viruses)

Preliminary Estimates of the Prevalence of Selected Underlying Health Conditions Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 — United States, February 12–March 28, 2020
The percentage of COVID-19 patients with at least one underlying health condition or risk factor was higher among those requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission (358 of 457, 78%) and those requiring hospitalization without ICU admission (732 of 1,037, 71%) than that among those who were not hospitalized (1,388 of 5,143, 27%). The most commonly reported conditions were diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Of those hospitalised 3.7% were Immunocompromised



Aline Charabaty (24:00) Gastro-intestinal doctor

53% of Covid positive people shed virus in stool. This can persist for up to 5 weeks after the resolution of respiratory symptoms. Can last u pto 11 days after respiratory sample is negative

50% of hospitalized patients have GI symptoms (18% have diarrhea)

GI symptoms include loss of appetite, loss of taste, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea

For IBS, Crohn, Ulcerative colitis patients it’s important to try and distinguish between their flare symptoms and Covid. Such as do you have fever, respiratory symptoms?

Some patients have presented with acute colitis without fever or respiratory symptoms

Risk of a IBS patient getting covid infection is the same as the general population

Registry for IBD patients who have Covid (30)

Prednisone (31:35) High dosage >20mg increases the risk of complications from Covid



Nancy Carteron Rheumatologist (34:52) Special interest in patients with Sjogrens disease

Autoimmunity is generally organ specific or multi-organ specific

Database being developed for Covid-19 rheumatology patients

2 phases when exposed to virus

Initial viral replication phase. 80% of people will clear the virus.

In the second week or so it moves on to an inflammatory process which may be affected by immune disregulation. (from under lying conditions or medications)


Q and A

Some medications can mask symptoms such as fever. Have a high level of suspicion

Unknown when a vaccine will be available. Have to wait and see what the nature of the vaccine is to see if it is ok for patients with autoimmunity


Watching out for in the future

Can the second infection be worse. Can having certain antibodies make the second infection significantly worse