The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases has not yet been widely reported, and has been evaluated only in symptomatic patient samples. The proportion of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients is unknown, in patients who share common symptoms with CoV-2-SARS infection.
Some treatments for chronic inflammatory rheumatisms such as TNF inibitors appear to have a protective effect against severe forms of COVID-19, while corticosteroids or other immunosuppressants may be associated with a higher prevalence of severe forms of COVID-19.
Our objective is to describe the prevalence of seroconversion to CoV-2-SARS by consecutive screening in routine care of out and inpatients with chronic inflammatory rheumatism (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis and psoriatic arthritis) by serological testing and to compare prevalence according to type of chronic inflammatory rheumatism, DMARD class and symptomatic treatment (corticosteroid therapy, NSAIDs).
