• Fabiana Zingone, Andrea Buda, and Edoardo Vincenzo Savarino.
• Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology, University of Padua, Italy.
• Dig Liver Dis. 2020 Jun 1; 52 (6): 604-605.

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 has been recently classified as pandemic infection by the World Health Organization. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are invited to follow the national recommendations as any other person. It is unclear whether a more aggressive clinical course might develop in asymptomatic COVID-19 infected subjects during biological therapy and current evidence does not support treatment suspension. However, during pandemic, the start of treatment with immunosuppressive drugs and biologics should be postponed whenever possible and based on an individual risk assessment. When clinical conditions and the disease activity do not allow a treatment delay, before starting a biological therapy, screening of IBD patients for COVID-19 active infection by RT-PCR should be advisable, even in absence of clinical suspicion. Serum antibody testing, when available, could provide evidence of infection as well as identify patients already immune to the disease.Copyright © 2020 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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