Rates of new-onset autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease (AIRD) such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus were significantly increased following bouts of COVID-19 in South Korea and Japan, researchers found.
With data from large repositories in the two countries, AIRD rates were 25% higher in South Korea (95% CI 18-31) and 79% greater in Japan (95% CI 77-82) among COVID-19 patients versus uninfected controls from the general population, according to Dong Keon Yon, MD, PhD, of Kyung Hee University in Seoul, and colleagues.
Absolute rates after COVID were 1.15% in Korea and 3.87% in Japan.
However, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 reduced the likelihood of developing AIRD following breakthrough infection, except when those infections became severe, the researchers reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. In fact, severity of COVID-19 increased AIRD risks across the board.
Yon and colleagues stopped short of calling AIRD a form of “long COVID,” in which fatigue, malaise, and respiratory symptoms typically predominate. What they did conclude was that AIRD appears to qualify as a long-term COVID-19 complication: AIRD development rates remained strongly elevated in both countries up to a year after infection, and beyond that in the Japanese data (HR 1.57 vs general population, 95% CI 1.50-1.64) though not in Korea.