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The actual question is raised in this article whether it is worth continuing the immunosuppressive treatment in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 infection.1 The clinical effectiveness of immunosuppressive therapy remains highly controversial. We would like to comment on this issue based on all available sources regarding the prolongation of immunosuppressive therapy in patients with SSc and COVID-19 and share our point of view.
Cases of patients infected with COVID-19 with rheumatic diseases (including a patient with SSc) are described in the article ‘COVID-19 with rheumatic diseases: a report of five cases’. Patients with rheumatic diseases have an immune disfunction during the therapy with glucocorticoids and the biological therapy, which predispose them to an increased risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection. For example, a severe form of COVID-19 was developed in a 79-year-old patient with …
Footnotes
ES and KV contributed equally.
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.