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With great interest, we read the recommendations from the German Society of Rheumatology regarding the management of patients with rheumatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic,1 in line with The American College of Rheumatology recommendations2 of continuing immunosuppressive therapy (IT) despite concerns of increased susceptibility to infections, since interruption might trigger an increase in disease activity associated with higher infection risk. Thus, one of the greatest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for rheumatologists concerns the patient’s adherence to treatment. Despite rheumatologists agreeing that IT should not be interrupted,1 2 patient’s own beliefs, perceptions and information about their disease influence the behaviour towards treatment adherence. Late in April, Michaud et al reported that patients with rheumatic diseases believed that IT increased their risk of contracting COVID-19 and the severity of the disease and that stopping IT might reduce that risk, …
Footnotes
Twitter @ritapineda_6, @sactMD
Contributors RAPS and DAGD provided the idea and performed the study design. RAPS, GSP and SACT performed the data analysis, interpretation and drafting of the manuscript. RAPS, GSP, DAGD, JAEV, DEFA and IDJHG helped in data acquisition and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors critically revised and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.