Introduction
In December 2019, COVID-19 infection was first reported as a pneumonia
cluster from Wuhan, China, but quickly emerged to many countries
worldwide, so that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the
disease as a pandemic in March 2020 (1, 2). This pandemic has taken a
heavy toll on the healthcare system across the world (2).
The clinical course of COVID-19 is heterogeneous, but fever, dry cough,
interstitial pneumonia, fatigue, headache, and loss of taste and smell
are the most frequently described symptoms (3). Severity of clinical
presentation also varies, while the majority of patients with COVID-19
have a favorable outcome, some develop severe pneumonia eventually
leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and respiratory
failure (4), requiring assisted ventilation in intensive care units in
up to 12% of patients (5).
Although much is known about acute manifestations of COVID-19, less has
been reported about the evolution of the disease and the development of
post-infectious complications. COVID-19 can lead to a wide variety of
complications affecting pulmonary, neurological, cardiovascular,
rheumatological, dermatological, and many other systems (6). There are
reports of several post-infection complications with COVID-19 including
reactive arthritis (RA) (7-11). Joint involvement in COVID-19 may occur
at different stages of the disease and may be represented by
non-specific arthralgia or by acute arthritis, as could happen in other
viral diseases (12). We report Two cases of COVID-19 infection that were
complicated by post-viral ReA.