• Cassie Nesbitt, Louise Rath, Wei Zhen Yeh, Michael Zhong, Robb Wesselingh, Mastura Monif, Janene Richards, Viet Bui Minh, Vilija G Jokubaitis, Olga Skibina, Helmut Butzkueven, and Anneke van der Walt.
• Alfred Health, Clinical Neurosciences, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne Australia. Electronic address: msniadmin@alfred.org.au.
• Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2020 Oct 1; 45: 102338.

Background And ObjectiveThe global COVID-19 pandemic creates an obvious acute health care resourcing and response problem. The different timing of pandemic peak in geographically distinct locations creates a short window of response opportunity. Rapid dissemination of medical information from early affected areas to later ones is therefore crucial to optimise planning. Formulating the best system response for at-risk patient populations is especially complex. People with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) are exposed to long-term immunosuppressive disease modifying treatments (DMTs) and, in theory, could be at increased risk of contracting the virus and developing complications. Social media, such as Twitter, can provide a global platform to rapidly share information and individual experiences.Methods And ResultsThis report summarizes the case experience of pwMS with COVID-19 infection in the first month of the pandemic as reported on Twitter using the #MSCOVID19 hashtag. 26 individual cases of COVID-19 in pwMS were reported from Europe and the United States of America. The cases involved a combination of relapsing and progressive MS phenotypes treated with a range of DMT (5 anti CD20 therapy, 4 cladribine, 4 fingolimod, 4 injectables, 3 alemtuzumab, 2 dimethyl fumarate, 2 untreated, 1 teriflunomide, 1 natalizumab). The cases shared present the earliest reported data on outcomes of COVID-19 infection in pwMS. Whilst limited, the cautiously reassuring nature of these early cases assisted in clinical management by allowing neurologists to continuously reassess their approach to DMT management.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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