{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]],"date-time":"2026-09-26T02:44:43Z","timestamp":1790390683816,"version":"4.1.0"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0009635","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,9]],"date-time":"2021-08-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1628467200000}}],"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627430400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002322","name":"Coordena\u00e7\u00e3o de Aperfei\u00e7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00edvel Superior","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["001"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002322","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosntds.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Negl Trop Dis"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\"><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Protective effects of Bacillus Calmette\u2013Gu\u00e9rin (BCG) vaccination and clofazimine and dapsone treatment against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have been reported. Patients at risk for leprosy represent an interesting model for assessing the effects of these therapies on the occurrence and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We assessed the influence of leprosy-related variables in the occurrence and severity of COVID-19.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec002\"><jats:title>Methodology\/Principal findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>We performed a 14-month prospective real-world cohort study in which the main risk factor was 2 previous vaccinations with BCG and the main outcome was COVID-19 detection by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). A Cox proportional hazards model was used. Among the 406 included patients, 113 were diagnosed with leprosy. During follow-up, 69 (16.99%) patients contracted COVID-19. Survival analysis showed that leprosy was associated with COVID-19 (p&lt;0.001), but multivariate analysis showed that only COVID-19-positive household contacts (hazard ratio (HR) = 8.04; 95% CI = 4.93\u201313.11) and diabetes mellitus (HR = 2.06; 95% CI = 1.04\u20134.06) were significant risk factors for COVID-19.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec003\"><jats:title>Conclusions\/Significance<\/jats:title><jats:p>Leprosy patients are vulnerable to COVID-19 because they have more frequent contact with SARS-CoV-2-infected patients, possibly due to social and economic limitations. Our model showed that the use of corticosteroids, thalidomide, pentoxifylline, clofazimine, or dapsone or BCG vaccination did not affect the occurrence or severity of COVID-19.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0009635","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T17:37:21Z","timestamp":1627493841000},"page":"e0009635","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["The influence of leprosy-related clinical and epidemiological variables in the occurrence and severity of COVID-19: A prospective real-world cohort study"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3188-4131","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Selma Regina Penha Silva","family":"Cerqueira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patr\u00edcia 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Sapienza","family":"Pinheiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0054-7754","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Gecilmara Salviato","family":"Pillegi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3220-0838","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Taynah Alves Rocha","family":"Repsold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5759-2727","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Patr\u00edcia Shu","family":"Kurizky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1239-1681","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Simon 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