Introduction
The earliest articles on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) characterized affected patients’ demographics and presenting symptoms, environment exposures that were associated with infection, and rates of clinical endpoints including intensive care unit admission and death [1, 2]. At the time of the drafting of this manuscript, 465,915 people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 21,031 have died from it [3].
Given that the literature concerning COVID-19 is emerging, no authors have addressed the virus’ impact on people with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D). As SCI/D is often associated with need for caregiver support, the regular use of equipment, and vulnerability to pulmonary infection [4, 5], this subset of individuals requires special planning, attention, and consideration.
We developed a survey meant to investigate how health care professionals involved in the care of people with SCI/D are assessing, screening, and treating their patients with potential COVID-19 infections. We further queried whether respondents felt that their patients with SCI/D and they, themselves, have been offered sufficient information about risk factors for infection and appropriate preventive measures.