Clinical characteristics and outcomes of multiple sclerosis patients with COVID-19 in Toronto, Canada.

Journal: Multiple Sclerosis And Related Disorders
Published:
Abstract

Objective: To report clinical characteristics and outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) who developed COVID-19 infection in Toronto, Canada.

Methods: Descriptive, retrospective, single-center study that included all known PwMS at the St. Michael's Hospital MS Clinic who had PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection between March 2020 and May 2021.

Results: Of 7000 PwMS in our clinic, 80 (1.1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Fifty-four (67.5%) were on disease-modifying therapy (DMT) without over-representation of any single treatment. Seventy-one patients (88.8%) had mild symptoms, but nine (11.3%) were hospitalized and one 70-year-old male patient not on treatment died. Of those hospitalized, one-third were treated with ocrelizumab.

Conclusions: In Toronto, PwMS did not appear to have higher prevalence of COVID-19 infection compared to the general population, but disease severity may be affected by DMT use. Our findings add to the accumulating global data regarding COVID-19 infection in PwMS.

Authors
Jacqueline Solomon, Ashley Jones, Marika Hohol, Kristen Krysko, Alexandra Muccilli, Alexandra Roll, Dalia Rotstein, Raphael Schneider, Daniel Selchen, Reza Vosoughi, Stefan Baral, Jiwon Oh