Impact of COVID - 19 Pandemic on The Clinical Course of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Egyptian Tertiary Centers

Background/aim: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a major impact on the clinical course of chronic diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical relapse and worsening of IBD activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and methods: In this study 125 patients were included and were followed up for 1 year. Of them, 98 and 27 patients had inactive and active IBD before the study, respectively. The clinical activity of IBD was assessed by Crohn's disease activity index and simplified colitis clinical activity index. Severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 infection was detected by real-time PCR. Results: The mean age of included patients was 34.3 ± 11.2 years, of them 54 (43.2%) were males. Forty three (34.4%) and 82(65.6%) patients had Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, respectively. Forty-six (47%) patients developed a clinical relapse within 1 year. Of them, 22 (48%) patients were not adherent to treatment during the pandemic (P ≤ 0.05); 33.3% of patients with active IBD before the study had worsened activity during the pandemic. The incidence of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 infection among the included patients was 8% (n 1⁄4 10). Conclusion: The majority of relapsed IBD patients were not adherent to treatment due to the fear of COVID-19 infection.