Covid-19 vaccination in rheumatic diseases: an overview

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China in the late 2019 and spread rapidly all over the world. The pandemic brought about medical challenges to patients with rheumatic autoimmune disease. There were concerns on whether the Covid-19 disease would impact negatively on rheumatic autoimmune diseases outcomes and also whether the vaccination could impact the rheumatic diseases negatively. The other concern was whether the drugs used in management of rheumatic autoimmune diseases would negatively impact the Covid-19 vaccination outcomes.

Objective: To review our understanding of the effect of rheumatic autoimmune disease and DMARDs on Covid-19 vaccination outcomes.

Data source: Available publication databases including but not limited to PubMed, Embase, Scorpio were searched for publications related to Covid-19 vaccination in rheumatic autoimmune disease and the articles were reviewed by the author.

Conclusion: Limited data was available on the impact of rheumatic autoimmune disease and DMARD use on Covid-19 vaccination outcomes.

Key words: Covid-19; Autoimmune rheumatic disease; Vaccination; Outcomes; Challenges; Guidelines.