By Dr Saloua Mrabet, Tunis, currently Fellow with BartsMS “Doctor!! Am I having a relapse? Do I need a new MRI? Do I need steroids?” These are some basic questions when your patient with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) calls you very anxious after a typical migraine attack. And even more perplexed when you answer “No!! it’s not a relapse”. She adds “But Doctor!! I am really struggling, I’m unable...
Q&A 11 April 2022
It Shouldn’t be like This (But it is)
Dominic Shadbolt () It Shouldn’t Be Like This (But It Is) Go with me on this… Someone finds a funny lump on their testicle or breast so they call the GP to book an appointment and get it checked out. Once the GP has checked it out and is suspicious, the person is catapulted onto a cancer pathway that presumes it is cancer until proven otherwise. This happened to me recently, and in the UK...
Clinical challenges – managing multiple sclerosis during War
By Filipa Serrazina There are 22,000 people with multiple sclerosis (MS) living in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Community of people with Multiple Sclerosis (UCMS). Their lives and treatments, as well as the lives of others with long-term health needs, are currently a major challenge. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 3.5 million people...
The MS register reaches 5000
The U.K. MS Register now has 5,000 linked participants. Why not help them get to 5001 or 2. You can volunteer if you live in the United Kingdom. In the year of its 10th Anniversary, the U.K. MS Register has reached a new milestone. By linking with the Register, 5,000 people with MS are not only providing data directly to the MS Register online, but have also agreed to have their NHS medical...
Saloua Mrabet – 2022 MENACTRIMS fellow
Hello !! I am Saloua Mrabet, the new MENACTRIMS fellow. I am an MSologist from Tunis, Tunisia. I am interested in Multiple Sclerosis and related inflammatory diseases and especially some hot topics in this field: HSCT, highly active DMT, Ethnicity and MS, genetics of MS and Women’s Issues in MS. Happy...
Are MS patients who had SARS-CoV-2 infection while on disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) able to mount appropriate immune responses to SARS-CoV-2?
Guest Post Ilya Kister This question is important on a theoretical level – to better understand the impact of disease modifying drugs (DMTs) on immunity, and on a practical level – to understand whether previously infected MS patients on DMTs are likely to derive a similar degree of immune protection against reinfection as those who were not on DMT. To answer this question, we enrolled 389 people...
A Tale of Two COVIDs – Part 2: When Omicron strikes…
“I couldn’t breathe properly. It felt like this was going to end badly. Frankly I was scared stiff.…” Christine Chapman is a film editor living in London. She is in her mid 60’s has MS, is on Ocrevus and had been triple vaccinated. Before Christmas she caught the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and came very close to paying the highest price. This is her story… “About a week before Christmas, I...
Guest Post: Oliver Findling. Limited seroconversion after third COVID-19 vaccine dose in CD20-treated individuals
“We know that patients on CD20 depleting treatment have a higher risk of a more severe Covid 19 course and that the humoral (antibody) immune response in these patients is reduced after vaccination, so there is probably reduced protection. Now, our data from Switzerland show that CD20-depleted patients who did not respond to the first two vaccinations hardly develop any antibodies even after the...
(Not) All change
Following on from the sad news about ProfG’s farewell from the Blog, the team will evaluate how best to move forward. We wish ProfG well as he continues with his rehabilitation and refocussing of activities. There is always a place for him to return in the future, so here’s an open invitation for the occasional guest post… Please bear with us whilst we’re engaging in some...