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

• Published in: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders 2022-02, Vol.58, p.103509-103509, Article 103509
• Main Authors: Solomon, Jacqueline M., Jones, Ashley, Hohol, Marika, Krysko, Kristen M., Muccilli, Alexandra, Roll, Alexandra, Rotstein, Dalia, Schneider, Raphael, Selchen, Daniel, Vosoughi, Reza, Baral, Stefan D., Oh, Jiwon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Correspondence; COVID-19; Disease-modifying therapy; Humans; Male; Multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis - complications; Multiple Sclerosis - drug therapy; Multiple Sclerosis - epidemiology; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Severity of Illness Index
• ISSN: 2211-0348; 2211-0356
• DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2022.103509

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