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