Protection of 318 Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients from the Outbreak and Rapid Spread of COVID-19 Infection in Wuhan, China

Background: An outbreak and worldwide spread of COVID-19 was derived from Wuhan, China where over half of the confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported. Protection for special populations at high infection risk such as patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is extremely urgent and challenging. Methods: We kept alerts since the first reported COVID-19 case and started to send educational and instructional alerts and took measures to 318 registered IBD patients (204 UC and 114 CD) 20 days earlier to the shutdown of Wuhan. The patients' infection risks, responses to our alerts and actions were assessed and reported diagnosis of COVID-19 infection was recorded. Findings: With the early and later upgrading alerts and actions for COVID-19 prevention and control, all registry IBD patients received and responsed to our timely guidance. Till now none of them reported COVID-19 infection. Interpretation: Our early warning and protective actions for prevention are undoubtedly the most critical step during this unpredictable storm. Well consciousness to prevent and control infection, timely and decisive adoption and adjustment of protective measures are the key to protection for our IBD patients. Our experience provides inspirative encouragements and suggestions in current COVID-19 worldwide spread and future pandemic diseases.Funding Statement: The National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 81870392 to Weiguo Dong]; The National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 81302131 to Ping An]; The National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 81901817 to Mengyao Ji].Declaration of Interests: All authors declared no conflict of interest.Ethics Approval Statement: The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and waiver of informed consent was obtained.