International MuSC-19 platform Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19

It is urgent to collect information to evaluate the relationship between MS and SARS-CoV-2, and to put in place immediate and long term protective strategies for persons with MS.

To win against this emergency, clinical research and health science are required to join forces to collect robust clinical and patient-reported data enabling evidence-base decisions.

Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19 - MuSC-19 is an international platform, linked to the Italian MS Register, to collect clinical and patient-reported data of persons with MS who have been diagnosed COVID19 or have developed symptoms (suspected COVID19).

The MuSC-19 platform enables the collection of international data via an electronic Case Report Form specifically developed for the COVID19 emergency.

To report cases of coronavirus, ask for access to the Musc-19 platform, Click Here

If you have any question, please reach out to mariapia.sormani@unige.it .

Italian MS Program on COVID-19

Our country has been hit by COVID-19 infection before other European nations. The pandemic stroke the Northern regions in a dreadful way. In Italy, as of May 12, there are 221.216 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases (Source: Protezione Civile).

It is compelling to provide concrete and timely answers for people with MS as their condition has additional reasons of concern compared to the general population. To provide a comprehensive response to the short- and long-term problems that the pandemic is, and will be, causing to the MS community, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society (AISM) and its Foundation (FISM), and the Multiple Sclerosis Study Group of the Italian Neurological Society (SIN), have set up a Program that is meant to represent an answer, as complete as possible, to this unprecedented event.

The program relies on the long-standing tradition of collaboration between MS neurologists from all over the national territory, among them and with representatives of AISM/FISM, as well as on the experience of neurologists in areas where the rates of infection have been highest.

Program agenda

 provide information to persons with MS and their family members, to health and social workers and to health authorities aimed at minimizing the risks associated with infections with SARSCoV-2 in people with MS. For this purpose, a document including national recommendation for persons with MS, extending the global MSIF recommendations to the national emergency, has already been published. The document will be updated if the emergency requires it and incorporates the government indications published by the Ministry of Health regarding the emergency COVID-19;

 study the epidemiological aspects of SARS-Cov-2 infection and detect useful information to understand what are the factors that expose the risk of infection and which influence the evolution of the disease and Disease Modifying Treatments. In this area, the following activities have already started:

• Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19 (MuSC-19) project dedicated to national and international clinical centers that is collecting data on SARS-Cov-2 infection in people with MS through an electronic medical record;

• administration of a questionnaire to people with MS and suspected COVID.

• SARS-Cov-2 infection will be monitored as an adverse event also within the Italian MS Registry which currently follows more than 60,000 people with MS in Italy.

Ultimo aggiornamento 12 maggio 2020