Understanding and Managing Severe Asthma in the Context of COVID-19

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread across the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the question of whether asthma is a risk factor for getting the infection or for poor outcomes motivated a great debate. In the field of severe asthma and its treatment during COVID-19 pandemic, several issues are also pending. A literature review focused on the management of severe asthma patients in the context of COVID-19 is performed. The available evidence suggests that severe asthma patients do not have an increased risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes and that it is safe to treat asthmatic patients with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and biologics during the pandemic, even though some studies indicate that high doses of ICS may predispose to COVID-19. The chronic use of oral corticosteroid (OCS) might be associated with poor COVID-19 outcomes, although there is no complete agreement. There is very limited evidence concerning the use of triple therapy for asthma in the context of this pandemic. Ultimately, severe asthma patients should maintain their medication during the COVID-19 pandemic, including biologic agents. More studies are needed to address the role of asthma medications and asthma’s different phenotypes on the incidence and course of COVID-19.

Safety of biologicals in severe asthma patients having COVID‐19

“…6 Moreover, some studies indicate that high doses of inhaled corticosteroids and the chronic use of oral corticosteroids might be associated with a predisposition to COVID-19 and poor outcomes. 7 Is this one of the reasons that the authors did not see any poor outcomes in their patients? I think that if these points are delineated, this valuable article would be more understandable and helpful to readers as well as to the literature.…”

High throughput virtual screening strategy to develop a potential treatment for bronchial asthma by targeting interleukin 13 cytokine signaling

“…This spread has impacted the health especially respiratory virus COVID-19. 49 Asthma treatment is a topic of interest and risk factors associated with severe diseases or negative motivation are a great matter of debate. A study from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center 4558 COVID-19 patients, 951 patients had asthma, 8 of whom were on biologics.…”