Unchanged trend in systemic lupus erythematosus mortality during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: a national population-based study

In this Letter sent to the prestigious Journal Lupus, researchers from Imuno Brasil extracted from the official national health database website (Ministério da Saúde do Brasil)  all records in which Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) was reported as a primary cause of death, or as a non-underlying cause of death.

The authors found no difference in overall SLE mortality trends. A significant increase in mortality from infections, likely driven by COVID-19, was observed in both SLE patients and the general population. These findings demonstrated that the presence of immune-mediated inflammatory disease did not increase the risk of these patients developing severe COVID-19.

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REZENDE, Rodrigo Poubel V.; MENDONÇA DE SANTANA, F.; FIGUEIREDO, Camille Pinto. Unchanged trend in mortality from systemic lupus erythematosus during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide population-based study. Lupus, 2022, 9612033221098540-9612033221098540. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09612033221098540