October 10, 2023 – After being infected with COVID-19, individuals are at much higher risk of developing autoimmune and autoinflammatory connective tissue diseases corresponding to alopecia, Crohn's disease, psoriasis and vitiligo, in keeping with latest research.
Vaccination reduces the chance, says the study from South Korea, which was published in JAMA network opened.
The researchers examined information on greater than 350,000 COVID-19 patients from October 2020 to December 2021. They also used a control group of greater than 6.1 million people. The average age in each groups was 52 years. They were evenly divided between the sexes.
“Notably, certain disease risks showed a positive association with COVID-19 severity,” the researchers wrote. “Potential associations between COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases … have been suggested, as SARS-CoV-2 appears to disrupt self-tolerance and trigger autoimmune responses through cross-reactivity, which may lead to the development of autoimmune diseases.”
COVID-19 patients had a “significantly higher risk” of alopecia areata, alopecia totalis, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis, Crohn’s disease and sarcoidosis. the CIDRAP of the University of Minnesota reported.
“The risks of alopecia totalis, psoriasis, vitiligo, vasculitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, adult-onset Still's disease, Sjögren's syndrome, ankylosing spondylitis and sarcoidosis were associated with increasing severity of COVID-19,” CIDRAP wrote.
The study authors wrote that the findings suggest that autoimmune and autoinflammatory connective tissue diseases may occur after COVID-19 infection, underscoring the potential long-term health impacts of COVID-19. Long-term management should include evaluation of such conditions in patients who've had COVID-19.
Limitations of the study include the undeniable fact that the population consisted primarily of adults and that the sample consisted exclusively of Asians, which limits the generalizability of those results to other ethnic groups and adolescents/children. Medical News reported. The researchers couldn't determine whether some people were more at risk of autoimmunity than others.