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COVID-19 and endocrine disease

During this challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESE recognises the hard work and dedication of all endocrinologists across the world, and in particular our members, as they strive to continue to support their patients and develop new care pathways.

ESE has, and continues to, develop and provide resources for use by the whole endocrine community during this time. We hope these are of interest and benefit:

 

European Society of Endocrinology (ESE)’s statement concerning COVID-19 vaccination: ‘follow the same recommendations for patients with stable endocrine disorders as for the general population’ (02 February 2021)

It has come to ESE’s attention that patients with endocrine disorders like autoimmune thyroiditis, have been declined to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. This has prompted ESE to release the following information.

Trials that have led the European and US American health authorities EMA and FDA to authorize the first two vaccines included more than 40.000 and 30.000 volunteers, resp., aged from 16 to over 75 years of age. Among them were patients with diabetes, obesity, malignancies, HIV, chronic pulmonary disease as well as cerebrovascular and liver disease in stable health condition. Efficacy and safety were comparable in these patients to healthy subjects. In addition, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention state that persons with autoimmune conditions who have no contraindications to vaccination may receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. 

ESE therefore stresses that the recommendation for the COVID-19 vaccination in patients with stable endocrine disorders like autoimmune thyroiditis, Grave’s disease, Addison’s disease, pituitary adenomas, diabetes type 1 and 2 and obesity should not be different from the one for the general population. Patients with adrenal insufficiency should be informed that in case of side effects like fever sick day rules should be followed.

A downloadable version of this statement can be found here.

Anton Luger, ESE ExCo member responsible for ECAS

Andrea Giustina, ESE President

Robin Peeters, ESE Clinical Committee Chair, on behalf of ESE’s Clinical Committee

 ‘COVID-19 and endocrine diseases – a statement from the European Society of Endocrinology’ (23 March 2020).

ESE has issued a statement about the role and responsibilities of endocrinologists worldwide during the current COVID-19 outbreak. This statement, prepared by Manuel Puig-Domingo (ESE representative to the European Medicines Agency), Mónica Marazuela (ESE Secretary) and Andrea Giustina (ESE President) also includes a ‘decalogue’ for endocrinologists in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full statement 

Read ESE’s “decalogue” for endocrinologists in the COVID-19 pandemic 

Watch ESE President, Andrea Giustina's statement 

ESE News Issue 43 Autumn 2020: Supplement - Covid-19: Endocrine Patients' Perspectives (27 October 2020)

In the Autumn 2020 issue of ESE News (Issue 43) we spoke to patients about their experience of living with endocrine disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read their views online or download the PDF HERE. 

ESE: Raising awareness of the links between endocrinology and COVID-19 (July 2020)

During this challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESE recognises the hard work and dedication of all endocrinologists across the world, and in particular our members, as they strive to continue to support their patients and develop new care pathways. ESE is working actively at the EU level to raise awareness about the links between endocrinology, COVID-19 and metabolic diseases.

You can read our latest position paper HERE and a condensed version of the same paper HERE.

ESE webinar series ESE Talks: Endocrine Conditions in the COVID-10 Era (7 May 2020).

The latest endocrine science presented by ESE in a series of live webinars by the world’s leading experts. The first in the new ESE Talks series was “Endocrine Conditions in the COVID-19 Era” including content from the European Journal of Endocrinology free review series ‘Endocrinology in the time of COVID-19’, coupled with the ESE Statement on COVID-19 and endocrine diseases.

You can watch the webinar series On Demand here.  

ESE and ENDO-ERN launch initiative to collect data on patients with rare endocrine conditions and COVID-19 (24 April 2020).  

The ESE Rare Disease Committee, alongside ENDO-ERN, have engaged in an initiative to collect data concerning specific groups of patients with rare endocrine conditions, who are also affected by COVID-19. We believe this is a global unmet need and requires swift, concerted and coordinated action.

The European Registries for Rare Endocrine Conditions (EuRRECa) project, supported by both ENDO-ERN and ESE, has developed an e-reporting tool (e-REC) which has been fully operational for over a year within a robust governance and ethical framework and which does not require individual patient consent. The platform is now open to all centres across the world to report a new confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 in a patient with an existing endocrine or metabolic bone condition.

We would like to encourage all our members and associates to join us in this important initiative by registering on the e-REC platform and begin submitting data. If you would like to use the e-REC platform to report a new COVID-19 infection in a patient with an existing condition, please visit the e-REC platform and create an account.

If you are already an active user of e-REC, then, after login, you will need to revise your reporting set up. 

You can find out more about the functionality of e-REC in this recent report. If you need any assistance, please email the EuRRECa team at info@eurreca.net.

European Journal of Endocrinology (EJE) free review series: ‘Endocrinology in the time of COVID-19’ (21 April 2020).

The Lead Editors of the European Journal of Endocrinology (EJE) have commissioned a review series entitled 'Endocrinology in the time of COVID-19'. This new EJE collection provides guidance on how to approach the management of endocrine patients at a time when we are facing unprecedented restrictions on our diagnostic and therapeutic capacity. All reviews included in this series have/will (upon publication) be made freely available for all to access online.

Resources

We are also curating and developing COVID-19 resources to support our members during this challenging time. Add this page to your 'favourites' list on your browser as a reference resource:

GENERAL

  • World Health Organization (WHO)
  • Biomedical Alliance in Europe (Statement on COVID-19 and resource page)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • NICE Coronavirus 
  • Public Health England (PHE)
  • Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) 
  • Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)
  • Royal College of Physicians (RCP)
  • The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)

ENDOCRINOLOGY