Publication:

Multiple sclerosis incidence in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah in Saudi Arabia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Background Many people have suffered from coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) which was declared pandemic in 2020. More than a year ago, vaccination against COVID-19 offered hope of controlling this pandemic. Recent studies have reported that COVID-19 vaccine can boost immune responses, However, it triggers several neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). However, there is insufficient data on COVID-19 infections as a risk factor for MS. Therefore, in this study our aim is to assess the incidence rate of MS before and after COVID-19 Pandemic and the associated findings that appeared in MS patients.

Methods A retrospective cross-sectional study had been conducted using data of patients admitted with COVID-19 infection at King Fahad hospital, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia from 2020 to 2024. The collected data had been analyzed using SPSS version 20 using data from medical reports.

Results The overall number of all MS cases that we have collected were 383, the cases before COVID-19 pandemic were 125 cases while 147 cases were during and after COVID-19 pandemic. The brain and spinal lesions was higher than the cases before COVID-19 also, there was a statistically significant difference between the cases that had ataxia before MS before COVID-19 are lower than after COVID- with statistically significant difference.

Conclusions The incident of cases increased after COVID-19, the mean age before COVID-19 was higher than the mean age of cases after COVID-19 with statistical significance difference.