Speaker: Lucia Moiola, MD, PhD; IRCSS San Raffaele Hospital Milan
What key insights will you be sharing in your session?
Lucia Moiola: Good afternoon to everybody. I am Dr Lucia Moiola and I am the coordinator of the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. We know that we have a huge therapeutical landscape for MS with an increasing number of high efficacy treatments. These later drugs have a greater efficacy but also higher risk, mainly for infections. During my presentation, I will talk about the importance of adopting risk mitigation strategies in order to reduce these risks. Possibly at the diagnosis or before starting any DMT it is mandatory to draw up an infectious card of the patient, which provides for the collection of infection history, for the screening of hepatitis B and C, for the screening of tuberculosis and the papilloma virus infections and so on, and also a vaccine card of the patients in order to verify the missing vaccines. Therefore, if present, we have to treat the latent or chronic infections and to administer the missing vaccines if possible. During treatment it is important to have strict monitoring in order to make an early diagnosis and to start a new early treatment in case of infections. It is important to underline that prevention is preferable to treatment.
Why is MSMilan2023 such an important event for MS experts and neurologists?
Lucia Moiola: You should attend MSMilan2023 in order to hear the latest news about pathogenesis, treatments, epidemiology and so on, and to be in touch with colleagues from different countries in order to exchange opinions and to start collaborations and to enjoy MS science.
