Risk of COVID-19 in Dermatologic Patients on Long-term Immunomodulatory Therapy

As the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread around the globe, concern has been raised regarding susceptibility of patients on immunomodulatory therapies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. While general guidance has been put forth, data regarding infection rate and outcomes in immunosuppressed patients is still rare.1 Recent articles, including the work by Gisondi, et al, suggest that outcomes of patients on systemic immunomodulatory therapies infected with SARS-CoV-2 are similar to the general population.2 These findings may relate to the aberrant cytokine and inflammatory responses in severe COVID-19, which may be treated or partially blunted by cytokine-targeted therapy.3 Given the substantial outbreak of COVID-19 in our community, we tested whether, in addition to similar outcomes, patients on systemic immunomodulatory therapy had similar infection rates compared to the general population