Covid-19 (aka Coronavirus) and psoriasis

[Fred]

I have seen a few posts on Psoriasis Club recently about the ongoing Covid-19 virus. We do have a thread in the members only board [Group Specific] and most members seem to be saying carry on as usual.

However it is something that is going to get asked so let's have this thread where we can put information for those with psoriasis.

First off I should point out that none of us at Psoriasis Club are medical professionals and you should follow the advice from your own healthcare system, we are just people like you living with psoriasis.

I have spent a lot of time looking for information as it's starting to worry some of our members, and as far I can see there is no reason for anyone taking a treatment for their psoriasis to stop.

Yes we have a recognised immune problem and this can be made worse with some treatments, but as far as I can find the recommendation is to continue with our current treatments.

I will continue to monitor the Covid-19 and Psoriasis news and update this thread if I have anything official to tell you.

*Members are welcome to post in [Group Specific] if they have any supported official information about Covid and Psoriasis, but I will close this thread and update it if necessary to avoid it getting information overload.

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07 March 2020 Latest advice for Inflammatory rheumatism and autoimmune diseases in France.

• Inflammatory rheumatism and autoimmune diseases are not among the proven risk diseases to date.
  
• Do not change the treatment for your disease ; it does not increase the risk of getting the infection.
  
• Some treatments used in inflammatory rheumatism (hydroxychloroquine, JAK inhibitors, corticosteroids) have even been used or proposed for their potential anti-viral effect and to treat excess inflammation in severe forms of pneumonia complicating COVID-19.
  
• Any suspension of your usual treatment would expose you to a flare-up of your rheumatism and thus to an episode of frailty.
  

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15 March 2020: One member has been told to stop using Cosentyx: RE: Cosentyx dosage reduction

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19 March 2020: This is the current recommendations from the French Dermatology Society

The recommendations of the ResoPso association, which are addressed to the patients receiving immunomodulatory treatments prescribed in chronic inflammatory dermatoses including psoriasis are the following:

For patients currently under treatment, the French Dermatology Society (Société Française de Dermatologie) recommends in a recent press recent press release "not to interrupt these treatments for a PREVENTIVE purpose".

As far as our group is concerned, and in accordance with the position of the scientific societies involved in the prescription of immunomodulators, it is not advisable to stop a treatment in progress that is well tolerated.

This decision must however be pondered according to the specific pathology, its severity, its control, its risk of relapse, the age and comorbidities of the patient.

It is up to the healthcare professional to assess the situation on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with his patient, and to decide whether to suspend the immunomodulatory treatment temporarily or pursue the treatment.

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20 March 2020: One member has been told to "carry on unless they feel unwell" RE: Continuing psoriasis treatment under threat of Covid-19

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22 March 2020:

France have a new website where you can enter your medication and it will advise if it is recommended to continue your treatment or not.

I have just put all the oral and bio treatments prescribed in France for the treatment of psoriasis and they all cam back with the same result:

"Ce médicament n’est pas connu pour aggraver les symptômes de COVID-19
N’arrêtez pas vos traitements habituels"

Translation:
"This medication is not known to worsen the symptoms of COVID-19
Do not stop your usual treatments"

*Note this is for prescribed treatments in France and some have different names, but from the list we have in the following two threads:
Biological Treatments For Psoriasis
Oral Treatments For Psoriasis
The only ones I couldn't check were:
DMF's Skilarence, Fumaderm, Psorinovo
Ilumya / Ilumetri
Skyrizi
as they are not prescribed in France.

If anyone wants the website link let me know.

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26 March 2020:

One of our members has been told to stop using Skilarence RE: Skillarence and Coronavirus

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27 March 2020:

Latest from The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD)

To date, the BAD is not aware of any good evidence that people taking drugs that target the immune system are at a greater risk of getting COVID-19 or of having a more severe form of the illness to inform this decision.

What happens if my patient wishes to pause therapy?

When providing advice take the following into consideration:

The views and concerns of the patient

The baseline risk of the person for developing significant COVID infection (for example age >70, co-morbidities)

The need for the drug (or drugs) and likely outcome if stopped (including how easily the treatment could be re-started, alternative options that may be acceptable to the person in this context e.g. topicals, and the clinical impact of a disease flare)