COVID 19 Risk With Asthma

Good News (Mostly) for Asthma Patients During Pandemic

COVID 19 has not shown the risk to asthma sufferers that many experts anticipated.  The role of biologic use and risk may still be unclear.  However, COVID 19 is a mucosal respiratory virus and can likely trigger a viral asthma exacerbation especially for those that are uncontrolled.  This is why it's important to work with your asthma specialist to optimize control especially in the problem seasons.  These include:
1) Having a written asthma action plan with clear recommendations for flare ups
2) Regular follow up with asthma specialist to monitor asthma control
3) Becoming familiar with symptoms of poor control, including frequent SABA use and exercise intolerance

Two studies presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) virtual meeting should reassure asthma patients and their physicians about their risks from COVID-19.

On the one hand, "no evidence of excess deaths was directly attributed to asthma" in a study of Scottish data on hospital admissions and death certificates during the first COVID-19 wave in early 2020, said Steven Smith, MRCP, of Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow.

And on the other, analysis of asthma patients receiving biologic drugs in Greek clinics showed no overall increase in COVID infection rates relative to the general population through April of this year, reported Andriana Papaioannou, MD, PhD, of Attikon University Hospital in Athens.

These encouraging results come against a backdrop of worry about how patients with preexisting respiratory disease, who may also be taking immune-modulating drugs, would fare during the pandemic.

There were two concerning blips in the Greek data, however. Papaioannou's group found that, among the 26 biologic-treated patients who did come down with COVID-19, nine needed hospitalization -- a considerably higher proportion than among COVID patients in the general Greek population, she said.

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