Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation During the Era of COVID-19 in Queen Rania Children’s Hospital

BACKGROUND: Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing a health crisis nowadays, and all countries are following the recommendations of the WHO to decrease the spread of the disease. Till now, few data are available regarding the clinical course, severity of the disease and the duration of infectivity of COVID-19 in patients received Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the medical protocols and outcome of patients who underwent HSCT during the pandemic of COVID-19. METHODS: A retrospective review of the medical files of patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation during the era of COVID-19. The following data were reviewed for all patients: age, gender, primary disease, viral screening protocols for donors and recipients, COVID-19 status and outcome. The European society for blood and marrow transplantation (EBMT) guidelines were applied strictly on all of our patients, donors and bone marrow transplant unit staff. RESULTS: A total of 10 children were transplanted, 8 of them received allogenic transplant from matched donor and two patients received autologous transplant. Regarding allogenic transplants, all of our patients except two were transplanted as an emergency, 2 of them were Aplastic anemia, 2 patients were Fanconi anemia, one patient was Amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia, and one patient was Acute myeloid leukemia. Only two patients were not an emergency as one of them had Thalassemia major and the other one was Sickle cell anemia. The autologous transplant was done for two patients with Neuroblastoma stage 4 as part of their treatment protocol. At a median follow up of 5.5 months (range, 2 month-7 months) two patients (20%) developed COVID-19, which was asymptomatic in both of them. One of our patients (10%) died due to cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonia. No one of our patient was affected by the emergency regulations applied by the country and hospitals during the pandemic of COVID-19 virus. CONCLUSION: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can be performed safely for emergency cases, if we strictly follow the guidelines of EBMT.