I am a 67 year male. i was diagnosed with PsA 7 years ago. I started taking Methotrexate 4 years ago and Humira 2 years ago.
Both Methotrexate and Humira had very positive results for me. I recently had to stop both drugs because I contracted bacterial pneumonia twice this year and strep during one of the bouts of pneumonia.Prior to contracting pneumonia twice, I had both pneumonia vaccines. I have been plagued by chronic sinus infections my entire adult life. I also have had 2 severe sinus infections this year. I have taken a total of 4 weeks of Levaquin this year-to overcome the infections.
I take Tumeric and never stopped during all of this.
The desired effect of both drugs is to deliberately lower the bodies immune response. That made me a gateway for serious infections. My rheumatologist has had me restart Methotrexate and after 2 months have passed following my recovery from pneumonia, I will start taking Otezla. She indicates that limited studies shown that the risk for infection with Otezla is lower than with Humira.