Cumulative incidence

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

Rheumatic disease

Cohort

Rheumatology

Virology

Cohort study

Hydroxychloroquine

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Outbreak

Environmental health

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Immunology

Pediatrics

Physics

Optics

Population

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Internal medicine

Biological drugs

Medicine

Pandemic

Disease

Incidence (geometry)

Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism

To investigate the incidence of COVID-19 in a cohort of adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases receiving targeted biologic and synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (tDMARDs) and to explore the possible effect of these treatments in the clinical expression of COVID-19.A cross-sectional study comprising of a telephone survey and electronic health records review was performed including all adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases treated with tDMARDs in a large rheumatology tertiary centre in Barcelona, Spain. Demographics, disease activity, COVID-19 related symptoms and contact history data were obtained from the start of the 2020 pandemic. Cumulative incidence of confirmed cases (SARS-CoV-2 positive PCR test) was compared to the population estimates for the same city districts from a governmental COVID-19 health database. Suspected cases were defined following WHO criteria and compared to those without compatible symptoms.959 patients with rheumatic diseases treated with tDMARDs were included. We identified 11 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in the adult cohort and no confirmed positive cases in the paediatric cohort. COVID-19 incidence rates of the rheumatic patient cohort were very similar to that of the general population [(0.48% (95% CI 0.09 to 0.87%)] and [0.58% (95% CI 0.56 to 0.60%)], respectively. We found significant differences in tDMARDs proportions between the suspected and non-suspected cases (p=0.002).Adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases on tDMARDs do not seem to present a higher risk of COVID-19 or a more severe disease outcome when compared to general population.

Incidence of COVID-19 in a cohort of adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases treated with targeted biologic and synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs