Are autoimmune disease patients more likely to have long Covid?
Three years into the pandemic, scientists are still struggling to understand long COVID. Long COVID and autoimmune diseases share many similar symptoms. Some have hypothesized that long COVID is a type of autoimmune disease, but scientists have yet to find autoantibodies associated with long COVID and more study is needed.
Like autoimmune diseases, long COVID tends to disproportionately affect women. Moreover, a study has found that individuals with autoimmune diseases are more likely to experience long COVID. The study found that at 30 days, users who take medications for autoimmune diseases were more than twice as likely to report continued COVID symptoms. In particular, those with autoimmune diseases experienced more severe shortness of breath and fatigue.
The Autoimmune Registry will be rolling out an updated long COVID survey. We want to hear about your experiences with COVID and see how many of our registrants have long COVID. We will publish the results in a future newsletter.
If you have any questions about autoimmune diseases, please let us know and we will include the answer in our next newsletter!
If you would like to join our efforts and provide information on your autoimmune condition, please join our registry or share it with a friend who has an autoimmune condition. Donations are also greatly appreciated.
