key: cord-0888519-wcp2yufi
authors: Parasole, Rosanna; Stellato, Pio; Conter, Valentino; De Matteo, Antonia; D'Amato, Luigia; Colombini, Antonella; Pecoraro, Carmine; Bencivenga, Carmela; Raimondo, Marta; Silvestri, Susanna; Tipo, Vincenzo; Annicchiarico Petruzzelli, Luigi; Giagnuolo, Giovanna; Curatolo, Agostino; Biondi, Andrea; Menna, Giuseppe
title: Collateral effects of COVID‐19 pandemic in pediatric hematooncology: Fatalities caused by diagnostic delay
date: 2020-06-11
journal: Pediatr Blood Cancer
DOI: 10.1002/pbc.28482
sha: ae8df2148523d1edd53a32b5f7885623cd21afb5
doc_id: 888519
cord_uid: wcp2yufi

nan

To the Editor:

Coronavirus disease COVID-19 has deeply modified national health services with a profound impact on hospitals, and in particular emergency and intensive care unit (ICU) activities. As recently reported in Italy, pediatric emergency accesses substantially decreased likely due to the instructions to prevent overcrowding in emergency rooms and spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to fear of the infection. 1 At the Santobono-Pausilipon Hospital (Naples), pediatric emergency accesses in March 2020 were only one-fifth of those registered in 2019 in the same period. Likewise, a marked reduction of consultations also occurred in family pediatric clinics. 2 We report here three children who arrived at hospital with lifethreatening conditions at the onset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) between March 14 and April 10, 2020. Considering low prevalence of virus spreading in children and that SARS-CoV-2-positive children are generally asymptomatic or have a very mild course of the disease, there is a substantial risk that collateral effects of COVID-19 pandemic, that is, delays in diagnosis, chemotherapeutic treatments, and treatment of chemotherapy complications, may be worse than those posed by the disease itself. [3] [4] [5] 

ISS. COVID-19 Italian epidemiological report

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Lessons after the early management of the COVID-19 outbreak in a pediatric transplant and hematooncology center embedded within a COVID-19 dedicated hospital in Lombardia, Italy. Estote parati. Bone Marrow Transplant

The COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid global response for children with cancer from SIOP