Here, we provide an extensive overview of all reported COVID-19 cases in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the Netherlands between 27 February and 9 June 2020, gathered by the Dutch MS Taskforce of the Netherlands Society of Neurology. A total of 86 MS patients were reported, 43 of whom tested positive for COVID-19. Of 43 patients who tested positive, 22 patients were hospitalized. Three intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and four deaths were reported. Our findings show no apparent difference in disease-modifying treatment (DMT) use and COVID-19 disease course in Dutch MS patients. In addition, a clear link between low lymphocyte count and severe disease was not observed.
Of note there were seven people taking DMF whol got COVID and 7 people with ocrelizumab, one was hosptalized on DMF and one not-hospitalised on ocrelizumab
Anyone on Natalizumab?
Interesting. I have MS and was tested for infection twice in the Dutch medical system – taking Aubagio. No infection but high white blood count. It is sad that some people with MS succumbed to the virus and passed away.
Hi MD
So do you mean 6 out of 7 on anti CD20 were hospitalised? Did they have a higher death rate too?
But the conclusion was still that there was no difference for any DMT?
Thanks!
Yes to the hospitalised
Not much info here. No statistics about type of MS and type of DMTs, no ages, no EDSS scores, etc.
Link added for pdf of paper.
Now this info seem usefull. So, 100% of the total 4 deaths refused ICU admission, is this right?
Three declined ICU and one died before they could be intubated, so 3 out of 4.
Link added to the paper
Ta
Yes it is what it is
Hmm I’d be interested to know which DMT the patient intubated for 24 days with edss of 1 was using.
I must admit I’m confused by this part of the paper:
“Compared to current evidence, a relatively high proportion of patients using ocrelizumab were observed in our cohort, of which the vast majority of the positively tested was hospitalized. However, this may be attrib-
uted to indication bias and/or reporting bias. Overall, our findings show no apparent difference in DMT use and COVID-19 disease course in Dutch MS patients.”
So for Ocrevus use there were 8 confirmed cases, 6 of those hospitalized, 2 ICU, one death. What analysis led them to the conclusion that this wasn’t significant?
How can you draw any conclusions from such low numbers?
No it is.difficult to make conclusions
You are correct the numbers are low. In the Italian study there were many more
Thank you Dr Mouse,
We appreciate you and your information so much. Thank you,
Hey, I’ve been a fan of this blog for a long time and I know dropping links is not always cool, but I started the Matt Calkins YouTube channel some months ago and I’ve now started posting more occasionally about MS, including todays video. I got my 7th Ocrevus infusion last week. If you’re interested take a look, if you hate that I dropped this link or dislike me for any other reason feel free to criticize me. It is YouTube after all. 😀
If admins decide not to allow this comment, I will not be offended.
https://youtu.be/LbIL-4hQr8Y
Were those that died obese? In the ipaper online today, obesity can increase risk of Covid-19 death by up to huge 90%.