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Thread: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

  1. #11
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    Default Re: COVID 19 and autoimmune conditions

    "I question their conclusion. If we are no more likely to get it, I would think it due the fact that we are more fearful for good reason and therefore much more careful than other people."DRZ

    Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, physicians who treat people with inflammatory or autoimmune conditions like lupus, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis have been trying to determine just how vulnerable these patients are to the virus. Because COVID is relatively new, many have largely based their predictions based on how this group has fared with other respiratory viruses, such as the flu. But now that it’s been eight months since coronavirus was first identified, more data about its impact is beginning to emerge.

    A new research review, published in the journal Current Opinion in Rheumatology, has examined the best-available evidence to date and yields somewhat good news. The authors focused on several previously published peer-reviewed studies that specifically looked at COVID-19 incidence and outcomes in people with inflammatory-mediated immune disease (IMID). Some of these studies were in patients with rheumatic conditions (such as rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and lupus), some were in gastroenterology patients (such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), and a small number were in psoriasis patients.

    The authors concluded that “IMID patients are not at higher risk of developing COVID-19 than individuals without IMID and that most patients recover, including those on biologic therapies, which provides reassurance to both patients and providers.”

    However, when patients with rheumatic disease do contract COVID-19, they’re more likely than people without these conditions to develop severe complications, including serious respiratory distress that requires being put on a ventilator.

    Patients using glucocorticoids seem to have the highest risk of serious outcomes. As with the general population, advancing age and having a co-occurring condition like heart disease or diabetes are also extremely important risk factors.

    This research review will not be the last word on how COVID-19 impacts people with inflammatory or autoimmune conditions, and the authors note that additional studies are “still urgently needed” since many of the studies they analyzed were small or otherwise limited in scope.

    The authors did point out that biases in the way the studies are designed could limit overall knowledge about how patients with these conditions are affected by COVID-19. For example, if patients “have differential behavioral practices (i.e., be more likely to take preventive measures such as wearing masks, washing hands, and sheltering in place longer) than the general population due to awareness of being at higher risk of developing infections because of their disease or long-term medications, this could potentially lead to an underestimate of risk,” the authors explain.

    The kind of studies that will provide such knowledge about differences between inflammatory and autoimmune patients and the general population will take more time (and require much bigger numbers of people) to collect. “Large-scale, population-based studies using nationwide registries, especially in countries with uniform COVID-19 reporting systems, may provide a better estimate of risk of COVID-19 in the IMID population, and whether differences in incidence and outcomes are present,” according to the authors.

    In the meantime, most health experts recommend that IMID patients continue to pay extra attention to preventive measures such as wearing masks, avoiding extended in-person contact with people outside their household, and practicing hand hygiene.

    If you develop any possible COVID-19 symptoms, contact your health care provider for guidance.
    Get Free Coronavirus Support for Chronic Illness Patients

    Join the Global Healthy Living Foundation’s free COVID-19 Support Program for chronic illness patients and their families. We will be providing updated information, community support, and other resources tailored specifically to your health and safety. Join now. The above is their latest mailing.
    Knowledge is power! Wisdom is using it to make good decisions!

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  3. #12
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    Default Re: COVID 19 and autoimmune conditions

    Fun reading this, but even more fun to see all my old friends still on the forum -- too many to list. I communicate with emails daily with Andrew and Geoff, but don't get on the forum much anymore. But, for a good reason.... I'm feeling quite well as long as I have the proper drugs. I'm still very dependent on pain pills, but mostly because of back issues and fibromyalgia. Wegs seems to be more of a hassle than a limitation. Fibromyalgia and, I suppose, arthritis seems to be the biggest source of pain, but its hard to say. I am in pain pretty much all the time, but it is well controlled with hydrocodone. Unfortunately, hydrocodone (and the other opioids) are the only pain meds I can take. All NSAIDS are off limits to me due to the pituitary (or lack there of) issues.

    At any rate, so nice to see all of you up and active. My very best to all..... vw

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and autoimmune conditions

    Glad to hear you feeling quite well. I wonder what projects or travels have occupied your time.I enjoyed hearing aboaut your travels and projects. Any new cars being restored. Keep on keeping on.
    Knowledge is power! Wisdom is using it to make good decisions!

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    I'm not well enough to tackle in car restorations or even finish my MG. I now have to hire someone to do the work on the MG. It's really hard to find a mechanic who knows how to tune a carb, let alone twin carbs. Generators and regulators are also a thing of the past, so I bought an alternator which will replace both those items, but moves the car further away from being original. Of course, it could all be undone.

    I can't do lawn work anymore and I had to hire someone to finish of our cabin. I have found that it is much easier to write a check to someone than it is to go through the pain of doing it myself.

    My pain is pretty much controlled with drugs as long as I don't do anything strenuous to exacerbate it. So far, this year we haven't gone RV'ing, but we are thinking about it. Some days I think I could, but others days I'm not so sure about it. So, I'm enjoying life, but I've had to throttle back my activities quite a bit.

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    Hated tuning the side draft dual carbs on the TRs, I feel your pain!!!!!! LOL Take care & enjoy!
    Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who only know what to think. -NdT


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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    Love your thoughts on this. Background 1st I was diagnosed back in 2014 with GPA due to a bout of double pneumonia followed a couple months later with kidney failure. I have been getting Rituxin infusions every 6 months since and all has been good. I consider myself one of the lucky ones as i have no day to day issues. Just check labs every 3 months to make sure all is good. Last 2 infusions have been 11 months apart so lasting longer. No major flairs but last labs didn't look good so I just had my infusion last Friday.

    End of May I had a symptom that wasn't "normal" for my GPA. I had "chills", so I thought I might as well get tested. It came back positive for Covid. I stayed home mostly in bed, no fever, none of the symptoms they all talk about. Just chills and and feeling of just wanting to lay around and do nothing. Didn't feel like eating much either.

    Anyway I survived. I am about 70 years old and grew up in the farm country of Minnesota, so lots of "germs" etc. growing up. I think that may have helped me too.

    I hope all stay safe and healthy out there.

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    I'm surprised with your double pneumonia issues that you had such a light time with covid. Really glad that you did, tho. I hope your theory of good farm germs is on target as I grew up on a farm, too, in Idaho. At least now you should have some antibodies. How long they will last depends who we want to believe. I have always told people that the extra weight I carry around is my surgery weight for when I get sick. Seems like a good idea. :-)

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    they claim extra weight is good when older, I'm carrying mine too. I can be sick for awhile. I did lose 5 in the 2 weeks I was sick, unfortunately it has come back.

    Hard to know what is true about virus. They change their minds everyday depending on the wind I think. County health contacted me when they were notified I was tested didn't even ask the proper questions in my opinion. No where do you think you got it, what symptoms did you have, just nothing really useful. Didn't care if I had other health issues. Should have all been helpful information.

    Stay safe!

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings: Using dogs to screen for Covid-19

    But now, the Helsinki Airport is doing one better: It’s hiring a team of dogs, trained to sniff out COVID-19, to screen passengers.
    Dogs have already proven their ability to sniff out diseases ranging from cancer to malaria. While we don’t always know exactly what they are detecting to ferret out specific illnesses, the clues are likely tied to a dog’s ability to smell volatile organic compounds—the metabolic junk our bodies produce all the time, which can vary with illness.
    With 220 million scent receptors, versus the 5 million receptors that humans have, they have a sense of smell that’s 10,000 times more accurate than our own. They can sniff substances that are diluted to a point of just one part per trillion, or the equivalent of smelling one drop of liquid in the combined volume of 20 Olympic swimming pools.
    Researchers at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Helsinki have been training dogs to be able to detect COVID-19 since early 2020. In May, the research group reported that it had successfully trained dogs to detect COVID-19 in urine samples. But progress has happened fast. Now, the dogs have been trained to detect COVID-19 from sweat on our skin and have started trial testing at the Helsinki Airport.
    According to International Airport Review, these canines need as little as 10 molecules to detect COVID-19, while current test equipment requires 18,000,000. And there’s no comparison of speed. Abbot Labs has a 15-minute test that costs $5 to administer. Dogs can detect COVID-19 more or less instantly, and without an uncomfortable nasal swab.
    The screening process won’t be as simple as letting passengers walk by while a dog casually sniffs, however. Instead, passengers will be instructed to rub their skin with a wipe, then drop the wipe into a cup. The dog will sniff this cup inside an isolated booth. This arrangement allows for anonymous processing that protects a person’s privacy, while shielding the handler from direct contact with a potentially infected passenger. Any passenger who is suspected of having COVID-19 will be directed to the airport’s health information area.

    The Helsinki program will soon employ four dogs but could expand to as many as 22 as enough canines are trained for the task. And while it’s unclear if the idea will scale beyond one airport—nursing homes would be another excellent use case of such dogs, according to researchers—it makes for a fascinating case study on how we don’t necessarily need more technology to screen for COVID-19 when 130,000 years of domesticated canine evolution is already on our side.

    About the author

    Mark Wilson is a senior writer at Fast Company who has written about design, technology, and culture for almost 15 years. His work has appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci, Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach
    More
    Knowledge is power! Wisdom is using it to make good decisions!

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    Default Re: COVID 19 and Wegener's - musings

    That's pretty amazing! Maybe we'll get back to flying and cruising again. This is really good news.

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