Coronavirus COVID-19 Asheville Arthritis Statement
Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center is monitoring the evolving outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 carefully.
Recommendations:
Patients with autoimmune diseases and/or taking immune modulating treatments including disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and steroids are at some increased risk of infection and risk of complications should they contract a coronavirus COVID-19 infection. You should contact your rheumatologist if you contract COVID-19 so your medications can be temporarily adjusted if needed. If you contract coronavirus COVID-19, you may be eligible for a antiviral medication treatment, and please discuss this with your diagnosing physician or your rheumatologist.
Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center will continue to monitor the coronavirus outbreak and provide updates at https://www.ashevillearthritis.com/coronavirus-covid-19/.
The CDC is a reliable source of information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.
The American College of Rheumatology is also monitoring this outbreak: https://www.rheumatology.org/COVID-19.
COVID-19 Vaccination
The physicians of Asheville Arthritis have reviewed safety and effectiveness data on the available coronavirus COVID-19 vaccinations. At this time we recommend that all our patients proceed with COVID vaccination if they are 6 months of age or older.
We recommend that our patients follow the COVID-19 vaccination schedules recommended by the CDC, available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html.
Frequently asked questions about the vaccines:
Scientific data to date on the use of the COVID-19 vaccines in patients with autoimmune disease is reassuring, with a small risk of usually self-limited disease flare after vaccination. If you plan COVID vaccination, please contact your rheumatologist to discuss whether any DMARD rheumatic disease treatments should be adjusted around the time of vaccination.
Our physicians will continue to monitor safety, effectiveness, and other information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American College of Rheumatology, and state and local health departments.
What about appointments at Asheville Arthritis during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:
If you have a fever, respiratory symptoms, close contact to a person with fever or respiratory symptoms, or any contact with a person with coronavirus COVID-19, contact us before coming to your appointment. We continue to see patients, provide infusions, obtain labs and radiology studies, though we are taking extra precautions to ensure patient safety.
When and where do I get the vaccine?
The federal government, your state government, and local hospitals, health departments, doctor’s offices and pharmacies are working together to provide the vaccine as quickly as possible to our nation. The vaccines are readily available at this time in most all pharmacies. Our office will not have a COVID-19 vaccine to administer.
If I have already tested positive COVID- do I still need to get the vaccine?
Due to the severe health risks as well as long term unknown risks (neurological and respiratory side effects have been seen months post infections) associated with COVID-19 and the fact that re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, people are advised to get a COVID-19 vaccine even if they have been sick with COVID-19 before. At this time, experts do not know how long someone is protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. The immunity someone gains from having an infection, called natural immunity, varies from person to person but does wane with time.
References:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html
https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-vaccines
North Carolina Department of health and Human Resources COVID-19 Vaccination information: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines