ABSTRACT
Introduction: There is little information on the symptoms, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) who have the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) illness, especially for those admitted to the hospital. Objectives: Very little is currently known about the effects of COVID-19 on people with MS and vice versa. Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the symptoms, clinical characteristics, and hospital outcomes of MS patients admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19. Methods: The current study is a multicenter case-control study that took place in Fars Province, Iran, from February 19 to November 20, 2020. All consecutive patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis were included, and all individuals with a history of MS were selected from the database. We also included two control groups with matching age and sex (patients with no history of an underlying disease and patients with a history of underlying disease). Results: From 38000 hospital admitted COVID-19 patients in the database, 25 had MS. Diabetes was the most common underlying disease in both MS patients and control groups, 11.5 % and 39.7 %, respectively. Fever and cough were the most common symptoms in MS patients. However, respiratory distress and low arterial oxygen saturation (<93%) were the most common symptoms in both control groups. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the risk of loss of smell in MS patients was approximately 5 times (OR: 4.95 CI: 1.04-23.58 P=.04) and loss of taste 13 times (OR: 12.9 CI: 1.12-147.9 P=.04) higher than total control groups. There is no statistically significant difference in clinical outcome between MS patients and control groups, including ICU admission, the need for intubation, and in-hospital death. Conclusions: While the risk of loss of smell and loss of taste was higher in MS patients, hospital outcomes indices were not different.
ABSTRACT
Background: Public support plays a crucial in managing public health crises. Communicating with the public during a pandemic has a major role in gaining public support. Public information-seeking behaviors are the core element of epidemic communication.. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the Iranian information-seeking behaviors during the first three weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the use of web search queries to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran from December 2019 to March 1 2020, is investigated. The Iranian search queries for COVID-19 were evaluated from December 30, 2019, to March 1, 2020. Google trend reports were used to retrieve data on the number of search queries. Queries were categorized into “epidemic news”, “necessary protective equipment”, “prevention strategies”, and “treatment”. To analyze the data, segmented regression was applied. Also, the daily percent change (DPI) was estimated. Results: The frequency of Google searches for COVID19-related queries first increased during the period of 18-23 February 2020 (DPC: 34.0;P value < 0.001), and then declined to March 1, 2020 (DPS:-3.9;P value < 0.001). The most prevalent query was “Epidemic news” (54%), followed by “necessary equipment” (33%). The frequency of these two queries increased from 18-23 February. "Prevention strategies" was the most common search category on March 1. Conclusions: When an epidemic begins to spread, people try to get the “latest news” and “what they need to protect themselves”. © 2020, Author(s).