VIDEO: Managing COVID-19 in patients with psoriasis
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In this video, Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, professor of dermatology and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, spoke with Healio about COVID-19 treatment options available to patients with psoriasis.
Gelfand discussed these treatments and other considerations for managing COVID-19 in patients with psoriasis during a presentation at AAD VMX 2021.
He explained that the National Psoriasis Foundation’s COVID-19 Taskforce calls for physicians who treat COVID-19 in patients with psoriasis to use evidence-based recommendations for treatments.
“What my colleagues should know is that there’s been over 440 treatments reported to treat and cure COVID-19 in the literature,” Gelfand said, adding that “rigorous, placebo-controlled trials” are needed to test the effectiveness of these treatments in COVID-19.
He discussed treatments that have been shown to be beneficial in certain patients with COVID-19, including Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody cocktail among patients at high risk for severe disease who are early in disease progression, and dexamethasone, remdesivir, baracitinib and tocilizumab among patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Gelfand stressed that while there is “lots of optimism for our ability to treat psoriasis during the pandemic,” more work is needed in public health efforts addressing COVID-19.
“Overcoming public indifference and reluctance to vaccines is a key next step to moving things forward to a safer world for all of us,” he said.