HOW TO FOLLOW UP WHEN YOU HAVE A CHRONIC DISEASE?
It is important that patients with chronic disease, especially the most fragile, stay in contact with their attending physician or specialist so that follow-up can be ensured. For this, teleconsultation, by video or telephone, is to be preferred. However, certain treatments and examinations can only be performed in a city office, such as for an ultrasound for pregnancy monitoring or, in a health establishment, for example for dialysis care . Now, health establishments have implemented protocols that reduce the risk of contamination during a visit to a doctor.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY RHEUMATISM?
In the absence of signs of COVID-19 infection, it is recommended to continue the basic treatment (biological or not and corticosteroids ) of chronic inflammatory rheumatism ( rheumatoid arthritis , spondylitis, etc.). Stopping treatment would indeed risk causing a relapse of the disease which would weaken the patient in the face of infection.

In the presence of symptoms suggestive of a COVID-19 infection, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, treatment for inflammatory rheumatism should be suspended , except corticosteroids . The attending physician or rheumatologist should be contacted to decide whether or not to continue his medication.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE?
In the current state of knowledge, in the absence of symptoms suggestive of a COVID-19 infection, experts recommend that people with inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis , do not stop not their basic immunomodulatory treatment (azathioprine, corticosteroids of local action, biotherapy) as a preventive measure. This would in fact expose the disease to recurrence.

On the other hand, in infected patients, they recommend suspending immunomodulatory treatments in agreement with their doctor. In patients who have been in contact with a sick person, they recommend discussing the possible interruption of immunomodulatory treatment with the specialist doctor on a case-by-case basis .