European Task Force on Atopic Dermatitis statement on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐Cov‐2) infection and atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a complex disease with elevated risk of respiratory comorbidities.1, 2 Severely affected patients are often treated with immune-modulating systemic drugs.3, 4 On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the 2019 novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Cov-2) epidemic to be a pandemic. The number of cases worldwide is increasing exponentially and poses a major health threat, especially for those who are elderly and immunocompromised, or have comorbidities. This also applies to AD patients on systemic immune-modulating treatment. In these days of uncertainty, reallocation of medical resources, curfew, hoarding and shutdown of normal social life, patients, caregivers and doctors ask questions regarding the continuation of systemic immune-modulating treatment of AD patients. The ETFAD decided to address some of these questions here: Finally, the ETFAD recommends all doctors treating AD patients to remain vigilant and updated through international, national and local guidelines, local health authorities’ homepages and the WHO homepage www.who.int. No funding was obtained for this work. This research was performed independently through the authors’ academic university and hospital affiliations.