Prevalence and outcome of COVID-19 among Iranian celiac patients

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and outcome of COVID-19 among Iranian celiac disease patients. BACKGROUND: Patients 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?. METHODS: Data 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. RESULTS: A 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%). CONCLUSION: This 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.