INTRODUCTION:
On March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the ’corona virus disease 2019’ (COVID-19) a pandemic, the first case was announced by the Ministry of Health in Turkey. COVID-19 pandemic itself and the social restriction measures applied to control the transmission of the virus have influenced many areas of medical interventions including ongoing treatments of chronic diseases all over the world. Meanwhile statements from specific health organisations have been announced to warn patients and healthcare professionals about the importance of maintaining such treatments under many different clinical conditions. Similarly, a recent Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA)-European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) statement has addressed issues and recommendations on how to handle allergen immunotherapy (AIT) during the pandemic1.
AIT, the only disease modifying therapy that confers a long-term clinical benefit for respiratory, venom and food allergies, has been used as a treatment modality for more than 100 years2-5. Subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT), the oldest route of administration has disadvantages like necessity of regular follow-ups and applications in the clinic when compared to other routes2,3,6. Therefore, it is inevitable that there could be disruptions in SCIT administrations during the COVID-19 pandemic that has deeply affected the health care system.
The ARIA-EAACI statement document recommended prolonging injection intervals during SCIT in patients acutely infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) like in other respiratory infections. However, by taking necessary precautions, the continuation of SCIT was recommended in asymptomatic patients without suspicious infection and/or possible contact with SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals, in patients with negative test results, in those following an adequate quarantine period and finally in those with high serum IgG levels to SARS-CoV2 with non-detectable virus specific IgM levels1. This statement is expected to have an important influence in guiding daily clinical practice of SCIT in many countries since treatment disruptions caused by a pandemic is a new field for the physicians and it is important to prevent any negative effects on treatment success. Real-life data on SCIT practices during the pandemic are important to show the implementation and further improvement of such recommendations. In this real-life multicentre study, our aim was to investigate adherence to SCIT and influence of treatment disruptions on short-term clinical outcomes in patients on maintenance phase of SCIT with aeroallergens during the COVID-19 pandemic.