key: cord-289079-m417oxpc
authors: Waggershauser, Constanze H.; Tillack‐Schreiber, Cornelia; Berchtold‐Benchieb, Christine; Szokodi, Daniel; Howaldt, Stefanie; Ochsenkühn, Thomas
title: Letter: immunotherapy in IBD patients in a SARS‐CoV‐2 endemic area
date: 2020-08-14
journal: Aliment Pharmacol Ther
DOI: 10.1111/apt.15897
sha: 
doc_id: 289079
cord_uid: m417oxpc

LINKED CONTENT This article is linked to Taxonera et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15804 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15955

Editors, With interest, we read the article of Taxonera et al on symptoms and the risk of COVID-19 in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 1 We would like to provide data from our IBD centre during the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 concerning patients receiving immunotherapies.

When SARS-CoV-2 spread pandemically, 2,3 the first German patient was described in January 28th in Munich, 4 which later became a hotspot 5 with an infection rate of 0.40% and a mortality of 2.9% in May 2020, particularly among old and sick patients. 2 Therefore, soon two questions raised great concern: are IBD patients who receive immunotherapies more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infections than the general population and are infected patients exposed to a more severe course?

Our tertiary outpatient clinic oversees more than 1200 IBD patients. According to the suggestions of the ECCO in March 2020, 6 we decided to continue our regular ambulatory service for all patients and to start an observational study. Only appointments of patients who felt un-well, reported fever, cough or had contact with SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, were postponed for at least 2 weeks.

Since the estimated number of silent SARS-CoV-2 infections is high 7 and most individuals show only moderate symptoms of respiratory tract infection, we called or invited our patients to fill-in a questionnaire, 8 Our data confirm the recommended practice that immunotherapies should not be stopped or delayed during the COVID-19 crisis.

Howaldt have served as speaker, consultants and advisory board member for Abbvie, Amgen, Biogen, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer, Sandoz and Takeda. Cornelia Tillack-Schreiber has served as a speaker and a consultant for Pfizer and Takeda. Daniel Szokodi has served as a speaker for Pfizer. All other authors have no conflicts to declare.

There was no funding for this study. 

2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China

Escaping Pandora's Boxanother novel coronavirus

Coronavirus as silent killer: recent advancement to pathogenesis, therapeutic strategy and future perspectives

Ethikkommission der Ärztekammer Hamburg. PV 5539