Research results from Italy suggest that having MS doesn’t increase the chances of a more severe COVID-19 infection.
Researchers set up an online platform to collect information about people with MS who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, or had developed symptoms. MS neurologists were asked to input data and share patient outcomes.
The results report that 223 out of 232 people with MS showed only mild symptoms. Of the 232 people, 211 were taking a disease-modifying drug.
These results appear reassuring, and seem to confirm that current guidance on the management of MS treatments during the pandemic is correct. But this was a preliminary study of only a small number of people. Once further data has been gathered, more definite conclusions can be drawn.
You can find the study, published in The Lancet Neurology, here.
And if you would like to contribute to some UK research, you can sign up for the MS Register survey here. They want to capture details of any confirmed cases of COVID-19, and to see how people with MS are dealing with governmental guidelines during the crisis.
