Internal medicine

Disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Pandemic

Outbreak

Intensive care medicine

Virology

Immunology

Coronavirus

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

Multiple sclerosis

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Medicine

Immune system

Multiple Sclerosis Journal

The CoronaVirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a threat of particular concern for people affected by chronic immune-mediated diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), who are often treated with immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive drugs, which may increase the risk of infections in general. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, empirical guidelines on how to manage treatments for immune-mediated diseases, including MS, were released. Subsequently, the first clinical pictures and data sets have been published, describing the outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with MS treated with immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive drugs. Here we will review available information on how infections by human coronaviruses affect the immune system in untreated subjects and in patients affected by MS treated with drugs which modulate the immune system.

COVID-19 in patients with multiple sclerosis undergoing disease-modifying treatments