A global effort is underway to understand the impact of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, on people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other CNS demyelinating diseases (Neuromyelitis Optica, or MOG antibody disease).
Through a COVID-19 & MS global data sharing initiative, participating countries are capturing and sharing data to understand the effect of COVID-19 on people with MS and other demyelinating diseases. Healthcare professionals and people living with MS urgently need this data to make evidence-informed decisions on how to best manage and treat MS during the pandemic. This initiative aims to rapidly provide insights on the impact of COVID-19 on people with MS and aims to understand how factors such as age, comorbidities (co-existing health conditions), and treatments are associated with COVID-19 outcomes.
COViMS (COVID-19 Infections in MS & Related Diseases) is the North American effort to capture clinical information from health professionals on outcomes of people with MS who have developed COVID-19. All data collected will be anonymous. Researchers will be compiling country-level data, such as the data collected from this effort, with globally reported cases to better inform the MS community.
People living with MS, whether they have experienced any symptoms of COVID-19 or not, can directly contribute to this global data collection effort by completing a survey on the platform most appropriate to them.
Future updates will provide learnings from this global data sharing initiative.
See video on the global initiative - link
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Want to learn more about the COViMS registry? Watch our latest Hear from the Experts webinar, Research Update – COVID-19 and MS for a summary of the current data collected, as well as details on serosurveillance, hydroxychloroquine and more (recorded on June 11, 2020).