Table 4.

Self-reported infections and their severity* within the six months prior to commencing bDMARDs (n = 158).

	Mild	Moderate	Severe
Skin or nail	16 (10.1)	14 (8.9)	8 (5.1)
Eye, ear, nose, throat	9 (5.7)	23 (14.6)	4 (2.5)
Heart	1 (0.6)	1 (0.6)	0 (0)
Chest or lung	2 (1.3)	7 (4.4)	1 (0.6)
Stomach, gut, gall bladder, liver	2 (1.3)	2 (1.3)	3 (1.9)
Kidney, bladder, urine	3 (1.9)	12 (7.6)	7 (4.4)
Bone, joint, muscle	0 (0)	5 (3.2)	6 (3.8)
Artificial joint	0 (0)	0 (0)	1 (0.6)
Brain or spinal cord	1 (0.6)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Blood	0 (0)	2 (1.3)	2 (1.3)
Viral	5 (3.2)	9 (5.7)	2 (1.3)
Other	0 (0)	2 (1.3)	4 (2.5)
Total infections	39 (24.7)	77 (48.7)	38 (24.0)

*Definitions of infection grades:

Mild: activities did not change because of complaint, did not see a doctor or require prescription treatment for the complaint;

Moderate: activities changed occasionally because of the complaint, saw a doctor and/or needed prescription medications to relieve the complaint;

Severe: caused a major change in activities, saw a doctor, required prescription medication which only provided partial relief; if a drug treatment was responsible it may have been stopped.