Abstract
Infection is a leading cause of mortality and
morbidity in adults with rheumatic diseases. This article discusses the
place of immunisation in affected individuals.
Article Extract
Dr Paul Healy discusses the value of immunisation in patients
with chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases and patients receiving
immunosuppressive drugs or corticosteroids.
Patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases have much greater
infection-related morbidity and mortality than the general adult
population. Those with rheumatoid arthritis have between two and five
times the risk of their matched contemporaries. Infection kills as many
people as active disease in the first five years of systemic lupus
erythematosis (SLE), and it causes 30% of all deaths in patients with
SLE or vasculitis. In general, the infections tend to be the common,
rather than opportunistic, pathogens.
