Approximately 16,000 persons in the United States are affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 1 Persons with ALS (PALS) have distinctive pathophysiological risks and health determinants that may increase their vulnerability for infection with severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-associated-coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and severe Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) outcome. 2,3 Data on the prevalence and impact of COVID-19 in this population is scarce. 4 The Veteran Administration Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) Resource Center and the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Spinal Cord Injury/Disorders (SCI/D) Registry are operational tools which extract data from the Corporate Data Warehouse (a relational database which merges multiple VA data sources). VINCI utilizes data so that aggregate statistics can be accessed. In adjunct, the VHA-SCI/D Registry has specific inclusion criteria (i.e.: Veterans must be followed at an SCI/D Center) and the data extracted is validated.Both VINCI and VHA-SCI/D Registry have added the functionality for the identification of COVID-19-positive patients. Within this letter, the authors will describe the COVID-19 prevalence and case fatality rate (CFR), as reported by aggregate summaries from VINCI, as well as the characteristics and outcomes, as reported by the VHA-SCI/D Registry, for COVID-19-positive veterans with ALS.From January 1st, 2020 to January 31st, 2021, VINCI identified 192,690 (3.6%) COVID-19-positive cases (excluding active, defined as patients tested or treated at a VA facility for known or probable COVID-19 who have neither died nor reached convalescent status) from a total of 5,295,285 Veterans. Of these positive cases, 8838 (4.6%; CI: 4.5%-4.7%) COVID-related deaths were recorded (within 30 days of diagnosis). Considering the 4086 PALS within VINCI, 138 COVID-19-positive cases were identified. Of these, 19 (13.8%; CI 8.5%-20.7%) died. Compared to the overall veteran population, veterans with ALS were 3.0 times more likely to die within 30 days of COVID-19 diagnosis (CI: 1.9-4.9, p < .001).The VHA-SCI/D Registry includes 1910 of the 4086 (47%) Veterans with ALS. Of these, 699 (37%) were laboratory tested for COVID-19, and a total of 68 (10%) were found to be COVID-positive.Excluding three active cases, 48% had an uncomplicated course, 18%
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