Practical management of inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: expert commentary from the Gastroenterological Society of Australia Inflammatory Bowel Disease faculty

Al-Ani Aysha; Clarissa Rentsch; Ralley Prentice; Doug Johnson; Robert V Bryant; Mark G Ward; Samuel P Costello; Peter Lewindon; Simon Ghaly; Susan J Connor; Jakob Begun; Britt Christensen

doi:10.1111/imj.14889

Practical management of inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: expert commentary from the Gastroenterological Society of Australia Inflammatory Bowel Disease faculty

Intern Med J. 2020 Jul;50(7):798-804. doi: 10.1111/imj.14889.

Authors

Al-Ani Aysha¹, Clarissa Rentsch¹, Ralley Prentice¹, Doug Johnson², Robert V Bryant^{3

4}, Mark G Ward^{5

6}, Samuel P Costello^{3

4}, Peter Lewindon⁷, Simon Ghaly⁸, Susan J Connor^{9

10

11}, Jakob Begun^{12

13}, Britt Christensen^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
² Victorian Infectious Diseases Unit, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁴ School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁵ Department of Gastroenterology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁶ Department of Gastroenterology, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁷ Department of Gastroenterology, Queensland Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸ Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁹ Department of Gastroenterology, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
¹⁰ South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of NSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
¹¹ Department of Gastroenterology, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
¹² Department of Gastroenterology, Mater Hospital Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
¹³ Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has emerged as a public health emergency and challenged healthcare systems globally. In a minority of patients, SARS-CoV-2 manifests with a severe acute respiratory illness and currently there is insufficient data regarding the virulence of COVID-19 in inflammatory bowel disease patients taking immunosuppressive therapy. This review aims to summarise the current literature and provide guidance on the management of inflammatory bowel disease patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Australasian setting.

Keywords: COVID-19; Crohn disease; SARS-CoV-2; immunosuppression; inflammatory bowel disease; ulcerative colitis.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Australia
Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification
COVID-19
Change Management
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections* / prevention & control
Disease Management
Gastroenterology* / organization & administration
Gastroenterology* / trends
Humans
Immunologic Factors / pharmacology*
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* / epidemiology
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* / immunology
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* / therapy
Pandemics* / prevention & control
Patient Care Management* / methods
Patient Care Management* / trends
Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral* / prevention & control
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Risk Management
SARS-CoV-2

Substances

Immunologic Factors