People who have had COVID-19 may have a higher risk of developing new autoimmune diseases than those who have never had the virus, according to a new study.
The study, published October 6 in JAMA Network Open, concludes that infection with the coronavirus increases the chances of developing a number of autoimmune diseases, such as alopecia areata and alopecia totalis, characterized by hair loss; ANCA-associated vasculitis, which involves inflammation of the small blood vessels; the bowel disease Crohn’s disease; and sarcoidosis, characterized by nodules in the lungs or lymph nodes.
According to the study’s first author, Sung Ha Lim, a researcher and physician in the Department of Dermatology at Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, these findings support previous research suggesting that the body’s immune response to COVID-19 plays a role in triggering certain autoimmune diseases.