Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease

In collaboration with the Target To B! consortium and Sanquin, we investigated the extent to which patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) who are treated with immunosuppressive drugs after corona vaccination are protected against experiencing (severe) corona infections. This is relevant because certain immunosuppressive medications negatively affect the production of protective defenses in the body. We collected data from 4192 vaccinated patients with IMIDs and 822 vaccinated healthy control participants. Our results show that most patients with IMIDs do not become more or more seriously ill from corona infections after vaccination compared to healthy control participants. Only patients treated with B-cell therapy are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from a corona infection after vaccination. Our results therefore show that patients with non-immune-mediated diseases do not necessarily have to be seen as a risk group for a serious course of COVID-19, but that caution when prescribing B-cell therapy to patients remains important.