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Caring for Caregivers

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Caregivers are a rheumatologist's most important allies. Learn the warning signs of caregiver burnout and how to combat the symptoms. Remember: their health is prerequisite to patient care.

Bryant England, MD, PhD, discusses his study, "Risk of COVID‐19 in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A National Veterans Affairs Matched Cohort Study in At‐Risk Individuals." Investigators found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are not only at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19, they are more likely to have severe outcomes, such as hospitalization and death, when compared with the general population.

Both patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) and those at-risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had a significantly different oral microbiome when compared with a control group. Most notably, the pro-inflammatory discriminative zero-radius operational taxonomic units (zOTUs), Prevotella and Veillonella, were much more prevalent in these groups than in patients with no history of autoimmune conditions.