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. 2021 Oct:55:103173.
doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.103173. Epub 2021 Jul 25.

Coronavirus disease 2019 in Latin American patients with multiple sclerosis

Yara D Fragoso  1 , Irene Schiavetti  2 , Luca Carmisciano  2 , Marta Ponzano  2 , Judith Steinberg  3 , Irene Treviño-Frenk  4 , Ethel Ciampi  5 , Maria Cecilia A Vecino  6 , Edgar P Correa  7 , Claudia Carcamo  8 , Sidney Gomes  9 , Maria Lucia V Pimentel  10 , Gutemberg A C Santos  11 , Carlos Vrech  12 , Thereza C A Winckler  13 , Maria Pia Sormani  14
Affiliations

Coronavirus disease 2019 in Latin American patients with multiple sclerosis

Yara D Fragoso et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who present coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are of particular interest to neurologists. These patients have a neuroimmune disease and receive immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive therapies in the long-term. We present here data from 73 patients with MS and a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from five Latin American countries. Fifteen patients (20.5%) were hospitalized and two patients died. The use of anti-CD20 therapies was the only risk factor associated to hospitalization and death. Despite the small sample size, this study highlights the awareness regarding therapeutic options for MS during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Multiple sclerosis; Pandemic; ocrelizumab; rituximab.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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