COVID and prednisone

[sferios]

Hi everyone,

There's a summer COVID surge happening here in the US. I'm just wondering if there is anything I should know about COVID and pred.

If I get COVID, does that affect how much pred I should take?

If I am in a flare (I am actually in a mild flare right now) and I get COVID, then what do I do?

Does getting COVID change temporarily any of the pred management advice?

Thank you.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

There is a whole raft of information in the FAQ - but mainly UK appropriate so not sure how useful - but have linked anyway - yiu might have to dig through to find anything useful .

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

but I’m guessing/hoping that similar rules apply in US - and you can obtain antiviral drugs-see link from FDA -

fda.gov/consumers/consumer-....

Also have a look at this - sick day rules link - has a section on Covid [but again is UK info ]-

medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/...

Hope you don’t succumb.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

If you are sick enough to need to stay in bed, then Sick Day Rules would apply. You would need to ask your PCP what they are doing about antiviral medication.

[cranberryt]

You will probably find in the US there is very little support for upping your dose while sick or with Covid. And since it’s difficult to get extra prednisone, if you don’t have dr. support there might not be much you can do. In general, I refill my prescriptions as soon as I am allowed which gives me a little extra to stock up on. When I had covid, I asked my dr. about sick day rules and extra prednisone and they told me I shouldn’t need it. I was on 2mg at the time and I had enough to bump up to 5 so I did. The dr. did advise me that if I started to feel better and then get worse again, especially with a returning fever, it was likely a secondary infection due to immune suppression. That’s exactly what happened and at that point they put me on an antibiotic and gave me a codeine cough syrup so I could sleep. Interesting enough, I recently had a horrible cold where the same thing happened and went to urgent care. They gave me an antibiotic and told me to up the prednisone to 10mg for 5 days and then drop back to my current dose.

[Preacherball in reply to cranberryt]

Over the course of my now 2 plus years with GCA, I have had, I believe, 5 "horrible colds," like you describe, most recently last March. I, too, have been to urgent care, been prescribed an anitbiotic, and had codeine cough syrup. The challenge for me has been trying to figure out if these have been GCA flares, as my initial symptoms were quite similar when I was diagnosed with GCA, I think they most likely were viral due to immunosuppression. (pred. and Actemra) I'm doing good right now.