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  • Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalisation of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): report from a tertiary hospital during the peak of the pandemic

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Correspondence
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalisation of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): report from a tertiary hospital during the peak of the pandemic
  1. Seow Lin Chuah,
  2. Cheng Lay Teh,
  3. Sharifah Aishah Wan Mohd Akbar,
  4. Yaw Kiet Cheong,
  5. Benjamin Sachdev Manjit Singh
  1. Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medicine, Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Seow Lin Chuah, Rheumatology, Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching 93586, Sarawak, Malaysia; celine3732{at}yahoo.com

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-218475

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    We read with great interest the article by Mathian et al 1 who first described COVID-19 in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Subsequent reports2 3 focused on the clinical course of COVID-19 among patients with SLE. We were interested in the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalisation of patients with SLE.

    The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Malaysia on 25 January 2020. Cases spiked in early March 2020 until Malaysia recorded the highest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in South-East Asia. Malaysia instituted lockdown from 18 March 2020 until 9 June 2020 (a 12-week period) as a public health measure to curb the pandemic.4

    Recent studies5 6 have reported increased mortality in out-of-hospital acute coronary syndromes, not fully explained by COVID-19 cases alone, and potentially related to the patients’ reluctance to seek medical care out of fear of the infection threat. Bromage et al 7 reported incident acute heart failure hospitalisation significantly declined in their centre during the COVID-19 pandemic, but hospitalised patients …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors were involved in conception or design, or analysis and interpretation of data, or both. All authors 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.

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