Background: The COVID-19 crisis has created unanticipated changes in health care delivery for people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). The pandemic's rapid evolution has resulted in a knowledge gap in how COVID-19 has affected MS clinical practice. Our objective was to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected clinical practice patterns in a nationwide cohort of MS clinicians across the United States.
Methods: In collaboration with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), we developed a 28-item SurveyMonkey electronic questionnaire exploring MS specialists' perceptions of how COVID-19 has altered how they prescribe MS disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), provide telehealth and other services, and view issues affecting their own well-being including re-deployment to the front lines of COVID-19 care and availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). NMSS staff sent a recruitment email containing the electronic survey link to 188 clinicians who serve on regional NMSS Healthcare Provider Councils across the US, 86 (45.7%) of whom were MS specialist physicians.
Results: Eighty-six of 188 potential respondents (45.7%) from 32 US states completed the survey including 45 physicians (41 neurologists, 3 physiatrists and 1 family physician), 18 rehabilitation therapists, 7 psychologists, 6 nurse practitioners, 4 social workers, 2 physician assistants, 2 nurses and 2 health professionals from other disciplines. More than 80% of all respondents working on-site in a health care setting believed they had adequate PPE. More than 41% were able to distance safely from others at work. Nearly 10% of respondents reported they had been re-deployed to the front lines of COVID-19 patient care, and an additional 16.9% anticipated being re-deployed. Among the MS specialist physician subgroup, nearly one-third reported using telemedicine to provide over 75% of their clinical care. Only 16.7% believed COVID-19 had not changed how they prescribe DMTs. Therapies prescribed more often during the pandemic included β-IFNs (28.6% of prescribers), natalizumab (23.8%), glatiramer acetate (21.4%) and teriflunomide (19%). DMTs prescribed less often included alemtuzumab (64.3% of prescribers), cladribine (54.8%), ocrelizumab and rituximab (50%), and fingolimod and siponimod (40.5%). For at least some of their patients during the pandemic, some MS specialists reported suspending certain DMTs including alemtuzumab (21.4% of prescribers), ocrelizumab and rituximab (16.7%) and cladribine (11.9%). Others reported extending DMT dosing intervals for natalizumab (38.1%), fingolimod and siponimod (11.9%).
Conclusions: In this nationwide survey, MS specialist physicians and other clinicians serving on regional NMSS Healthcare Provider Councils across the US reported profound changes in how they are delivering MS care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2021.102913 | DOI Listing |
Risk Manag Healthc Policy
January 2025
School of Public Health, Gudie University Project, Kampala, Uganda.
Aim: This study examined citizens' knowledge and compliance with COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), vaccine acceptance and hesitancy, and factors that could influence these behaviors.
Methods: The study that utilised the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) approach was conducted in eight districts of Central Uganda; Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, Mubende, Kasanda, Mityana, Luwero, Nakaseke, and Nakasongola districts. Each district was divided into five supervision areas (SAs).
Aim: After the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, several municipal offices were forced to evacuate, and municipal public employees (MPEs) had to perform many administrative tasks related to the disaster. Typhoons and the COVID-19 pandemic also affected the area afterwards. We conducted a survey for MPEs to investigate the mental health impacts and related factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld Allergy Organ J
January 2025
Department of Dermatology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Background: While epidemiological data suggest a connection between atopic dermatitis (AD) and COVID-19, the molecular mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear.
Objective: To investigate whether COVID-19-related CpGs may contribute to AD development and whether this association is mediated through the regulation of specific genes' expression.
Methods: We combined Mendelian randomization and transcriptome analysis for data-driven explorations.
Pak J Med Sci
January 2025
Feyza Koc, MD Associate Professor, Division of Social Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Ege University Children's Hospital, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey.
Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on frequency of well-child follow-up visits and immunization rate in Turkish tertiary reference hospital's Well-Child Care Outpatient Clinic.
Methods: Children aged one month to 18 years who presented to the Well Child Care Outpatient Clinic of a tertiary referral hospital in Turkey for child health follow-up and immunisation were included in the study. Children with chronic diseases or children who needed to be immunised with a different scheme due to their special conditions were not included.
PNAS Nexus
January 2025
Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Here, we present Link-Seq, a highly efficient droplet microfluidic method for combined sequencing of antibody-encoding genes and the transcriptome of individual B cells at large scale. The method is based on 3' barcoding of the transcriptome and subsequent single-molecule PCR in droplets, which freely shift the barcode along specific gene regions, such as the antibody heavy- and light-chain genes. Using the immune repertoire of COVID-19 patients and healthy donors as a model system, we obtain up to 91.
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