Careful medication choices can help reduce infection risk posed by certain treatments for RA

Treatments for rheumatoid arthritis can pose risks for infections, but careful choices about medications can reduce the risks, according to a presentation by Daniel Furst, MD, a Carl Pearson Professor of Medicine and director of the Rheumatology Clinical Research Center at University of California at Los Angeles.Non-serious infections are common with the use of methotrexate, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) inhibitors and non-biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and include sinusitis and urinary tract infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).