Clinical course of COVID-19 in a cohort of 342 familial Mediterranean fever patients with a long-term treatment by colchicine in a French endemic area.

The novel COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for many deaths worldwide. Severe or life-threatening disease induce an exaggerated inflammatory response known as the ‘cytokine storm’, raising the question of the susceptibility and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients displaying innate immunity disorders such as familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). Furthermore, FMF patients take a long-term therapy with colchicine, which has been tested in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with conflicting results.1 To tackle this question, we conducted a survey on SARS-CoV-2 infection in FMF patients followed in Paris area. In that meantime, the official French rate of infection in Paris area was 11% of the whole population.2 FMF patients were identified from the juvenile inflammatory rheumatism (JIR) cohort, an international multicenter data repository and consented to the study. For the purpose of the study, we included only patients fulfilling the international FMF criteria, with a genetic confirmed FMF diagnosis,3 and followed up in the French national autoinflammatory centre in Paris area. Identified patients (n=627) were invited to answer a short questionnaire in consultation by phone or email about a possible SARS-CoV-2 infection during the time span …