For what it is worth ... I experienced infections while on prednisone. Most of my infections happened when prednisone was combined with a DMARD such as methotrexate or leflunomide.

When I was taking prednisone and leflunomide, I had three infections in succession with 3-4 months between infections. The infections required antibiotics.

I was able to taper to a lower dose of prednisone while on leflunomide so my rheumatologist wanted me to stay on leflunomide. The infections weren't too serious until the third infection caused a massive amount of pain. The infection itself wasn't overly painful. The pain was a flare of some kind if it wasn't entirely a PMR flare.

I was given another round of antibiotics to treat an abscess with the hope that the pain would improve after the abscess was treated. The pain didn't improve. I ended up taking 60 mg of prednisone before the pain improved. Leflunomide was stopped "due to infections."

I had a discussion with my rheumatologist about the infections. She didn't blame prednisone or leflunomide. She said the infections were caused by too much immunosuppression because of the combination of both prednisone and leflunomide.

Currently, my only treatmen is Actemra. I was able to taper off prednisone three years ago. On "standalone" treatment with Actemra, I haven't had any infections ...not even Covid.