According to German researchers, people who have survived a corona infection are much more likely to have an autoimmune disease than others. The basis is an extensive analysis of health insurance data. “In all age and gender groups, autoimmune diseases were significantly more common in the post-infection period,” says Jochen Schmitt of the University Hospital Dresden.
However, according to the researchers, the results only relate to unvaccinated people who have had a proven corona infection with the wild-type of the virus. There is currently no corresponding knowledge about other variants of the virus.
High risk with serious Covid course
According to the analysis, there were 15.05 diagnoses of an autoimmune disease in people with a corona infection per 1000 insured years, in people without a Covid infection there were only 10.55. Patients with a more severe course of Covid were at particularly high risk. Certain blood vessel inflammations showed the greatest associations with Covid-19. The results have not yet been published in a professional journal.
Data from 640,000 people analyzed
Accounting data was evaluated on 38.9 million people with statutory health insurance in Germany from 2019 to June 2021. The analysis included data from 640,000 people with laboratory-proven Covid-19 disease in 2020, including 76,000 with pre-existing car insurance. immune disease.
Of the Covid patients who did not previously have an autoimmune disease, 6489 developed such a disease for the first time. Corona-infected and three uninfected people with similar characteristics were compared based on 41 predetermined illnesses.
The study is part of a project funded by the Robert Koch Institute and the federal government on the long-term effects of Covid. So far, there is little evidence of autoimmune diseases caused by corona infections, the team writes.
Expert: More research needed
More research is needed to understand the links between Covid-19 and these diseases, Schmitt said. “Future analyzes should focus on chronic diseases that emerged during the pandemic.” Other researchers are currently discussing a link between Covid-19 and a long-term weakening of the immune system.
Source: Krone
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