A patient suspected of carrying the new coronavirus, COVID-19, arrives at Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Feb. 19, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study found that compared to people without rheumatism, individuals suffering from rheumatism have a higher risk of being infected with COVID-19 and once they get infected, they are more likely to develop severe symptoms.
Based on data from the National Health Insurance Service, a research team from the Seoul National University Hospital conducted a study of 133,609 adults over 20 years of age who were tested for coronavirus during the period from January to May 2020.
After dividing them into two groups, one with rheumatism disease (8,297) and the other without rheumatism disease (125,312), the research team compared and analyzed the infection rate and the risk of severe coronavirus between the two groups.
The study found that those with rheumatism were about 20 percent more likely to get infected with COVID-19 and, once they are infected with COVID-19, their risk of serious disease was over 25 percent higher than that of others.
When it comes to virus infection, there was no negative impact on the patients who took disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or steroids.
However, patients who took more than 10 milligrams of steroids per day saw their COVID-19 infection rate rise by 50 percent and the risk of developing serious symptoms jump by more than 70 percent.
The research team concluded that individuals with rheumatism have a higher infection risk since rheumatism aggravates the capability of T cells to react to new antigens such as new coronavirus.
T cells in charge of immunity in the body are involved in both the response to the coronavirus and rheumatism disease.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
