Coronavirus disease 2019 infection among working-aged people with multiple sclerosis and the impact of disease-modifying therapies

TL;DR

This study examines how common coronavirus disease 2019 is among people with multiple sclerosis and whether treatments affect infection rates or lingering symptoms.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the relationship between MS treatments and the risk of COVID-19 infection or post-viral symptoms.

Findings

No significant differences in coronavirus disease 2019 occurrence were found across different disease-modifying therapies.

Most participants who had coronavirus disease 2019 reported full recovery, while others experienced lingering symptoms like loss of smell or taste and fatigue.

Abstract

The risk of coronavirus disease 2019 among people with multiple sclerosis with different disease-modifying therapies is not well established.

To investigate the occurrence of coronavirus disease 2019 and the remaining symptoms among people with multiple sclerosis and the associations with different disease-modifying therapies.

Individuals aged 20–50 listed in the Swedish Multiple Sclerosis Registry were invited to participate in a survey in 2021. Information on reported coronavirus disease 2019 infection and remaining symptoms were linked to individual-level register data. The risks by disease-modifying therapy of having coronavirus disease 2019 or having remaining symptoms were estimated with logistic regression.

Of the 4393 participants, 1030 (23.4%) self-reported coronavirus disease 2019 (749 confirmed and 281 suspected). The observed odds for coronavirus disease 2019 did not differ by disease-modifying therapy (p-values <0.05). The majority reporting coronavirus disease 2019 had fully recovered (68.5%), 4.2% were currently/recently sick, and 27.0% had symptoms remaining after 2 months. The most frequently reported remaining symptoms involved one's sense of smell or taste (37.0%), fatigue (20.0%), and breathing (12.0%). No statistically significant associations were observed between having remaining symptoms and the disease-modifying therapy.

Despite the initial concerns of differing infection risks by MS treatments, we observed no differences in coronavirus disease 2019 occurrence or remaining symptoms among those who had coronavirus disease 2019. Nonetheless, exercising caution in interpreting our findings, it remains implicit that people with multiple sclerosis are particularly susceptible to infection and that lingering symptoms may persist beyond the initial infection.

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