Prevalence and outcome of COVID-19 among Iranian celiac patients

AimThis study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and outcome of COVID-19 among Iranian celiac disease patients. BackgroundPatients with celiac disease (CD) might be at greater risk for opportunistic viral infections. Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) cause of respiratory disorder which spread around the world at the end of 2019. The question is does COVID-19 infection increase the risk of severe outcome and/or a higher mortality in treated celiac disease?. MethodsData regarding demographic details, clinical history, and COVID-19 infection symptoms among treated celiac disease patients was collected from July 2020 to January 2021 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. ResultsA total of 455 celiac disease patients were included in this study. The prevalence of Covid-19 infection among celiac disease patients was 2.4%. Infection among women (72.7%) was higher than the men, and only one overweight man who smoked was hospitalized. Among COVID-19 infected celiac disease patients, the most common symptoms were myalgia 90.9% (10/11), fever, body trembling, headache, shortness of breath, loss of smell and taste, and anorexia (72.7%). Treatments for COVID-19, included antibiotics (90.9%), pain analgesics (54.5%), antihistamines (27.3%), antivirals (9.1%) and hydroxychloroquine (9.1%). ConclusionThis study shows that treated celiac disease is not a risk factor for severity or higher mortality in patients infected with COVID-19. Women, however, might need extra-protection to prevent COVID-19 infection.