Module 2 - COVID-19 Infection in People with MS

Launch Date:
August 31, 2022

Primary Audience:

This activity is intended to meet the educational needs of healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients with multiple sclerosis and COVID-19.

This module covers each specific DMT category with respect to balancing concerns of COVID-19 infection while attempting to control a patient’s MS.

Shiv Saidha, MD

 

Shiv Saidha, MD
Professor of Neurology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

 
Dr. Shiv Saidha specializes in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as other neuroimmunological disorders of the central nervous system, including those afflicting the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves.  
 
Dr. Saidha’s research interests to date have predominantly focused on the non-invasive interrogation of retinal structures using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in multiple sclerosis (MS), in order to identify and investigate novel outcome strategies for assessing and monitoring neuroprotection and neurorestoration in MS, as well as to further our understanding of the pathobiology of MS, including how retinal pathology in MS may be related to more global central nervous system disturbances. He has been at the fore of discovering and demonstrating that inner and outer retinal layer pathology occur within the unmyelinated retina in MS (both quantitatively and qualitatively). He is committed to continuing to delineate and ascertain the mechanisms involved in the development of these findings, the clinical relevance of these changes (both locally in the retina, as well as more globally), and determine if this information may be used to guide the development of new, and potentially unique/novel effective MS therapies. His work to date has been primarily structurally focused (both within the retina using OCT, as well as more globally within the central nervous system through the assessment of brain substructure volumes, diffusion tensor imaging & magnetization transfer ratio metrics within specific pathways in MS). He also has expertise in the functional assessment of the anterior visual pathway in MS through the application of multifocal electroretinography and pupillometry techniques amongst others. He has published first author papers in Lancet, Lancet Neurology, Brain, Neurology, JAMA neurology, Archives of Neurology and Multiple Sclerosis Journal amongst authors.
1.
Review individual and class characteristics of DMTs, specifically with focus on effects on the immune system, implications on vaccination, and risks during active SARS-CoV-2 infection.