PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Moli Fan AU - Wei Qiu AU - Bitao Bu AU - Yan Xu AU - Huan Yang AU - Dehui Huang AU - Alexander Y. Lau AU - Jun Guo AU - Mei-Ni Zhang AU - Xinghu Zhang AU - Chun-Sheng Yang AU - Jingshan Chen AU - Pei Zheng AU - Qiang Liu AU - Chao Zhang AU - Fu-Dong Shi TI - Risk of COVID-19 infection in MS and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders AID - 10.1212/NXI.0000000000000787 DP - 2020 Sep 01 TA - Neurology - Neuroimmunology Neuroinflammation PG - e787 VI - 7 IP - 5 4099 - http://nn.neurology.org/content/7/5/e787.short 4100 - http://nn.neurology.org/content/7/5/e787.full SO - Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm2020 Sep 01; 7 AB - Objective Disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) may alter the immune status and thus increase the susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with MS or neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). However, evidence supporting this notion is currently lacking. In this study, we conducted a survey on the risk of COVID-19 in patients with MS and NMOSD.Methods The survey was conducted through the Chinese Medical Network for Neuroinflammation. Patients in 10 MS centers from 8 cities including Wuhan were included. Information about MS and NMOSD disease duration and the usage of DMDs were collected. Data of suspected cases of COVID-19 were obtained from hospital visits, questionnaires, and patient self-reporting. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was confirmed through clinical evaluation by a panel of experts in conjunction with chest CT and viral RNA detection.Results Eight hundred eighty-two of 1,804 (48.89%) patients with MS and 2,129 of 3,060 (69.58%) patients with NMOSD were receiving DMDs. There were no alterations in the patients' DMD regimen during January 15, 2020, to March 15, 2020, the 3-month period. None of the patients with MS treated with DMDs had COVID-19. However, 2 patients with relapsing NMOSD were diagnosed with COVID-19-related pneumonia. After treatment, both patients recovered from pneumonia and neither patient experienced new attacks due to predisposing SARS-CoV-2 infection in the following 2 months.Conclusions No increased risk of COVID-19 infection was observed in patients with MS or NMOSD, irrespective of whether these patients received DMDs. A battery of stringent preventive measures adopted by neurologists to reduce COVID-19 infection in these patients may have contributed to low risk of COVID-19 infection.CMNN=Chinese Medical Network for Neuroinflammation; COVID-19=coronavirus disease 2019; DMD=disease-modifying drug; NMOSD=neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder; SARS-CoV-2=severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2