SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus of zoonotic origin that emerged in China and now is spreading worldwide. 71 838 cases have been registered in Kazakhstan. At the moment, 3 585 of which died. The risk of coronavirus infection in oncohematological patients is much higher, due to a reduced immune status and immunosuppressive therapy, which they receive, as well as comorbidity in majority of patients.
We included all consecutive adult patients with oncohematologic diseases admitted to KazIOR, the Hematology Department, with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection between June 15 and July 15, 2020. A confirmed case of COVID-19 was defined by a positive result on a real-time RT-PCR assay and radiological evidence of pneumonia CT-scan.
The median patient age was 49 (range, 18–81) years, 64% were male. The median duration of symptoms before the COVID-19 PCR assay was was 4 (range, 0–22) days. Multiple myeloma (MM) was eleven patients, Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)-three patients, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)-three patients, Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL)-five patients, Chronic Lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-two patients. 16 from 25 patients (64%) received chemotherapy at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis, which was registered during the treatment or after that. 13 patients had clinical symptoms, such as fever (n = 56%), cough (n = 25.8%), and shortness of breath (n = 48%), twelve patients were asymptomatic. CT scan of the chest was performed in 14 patients and bilateral ground glass opacities were evident in all cases. Five patients died, among them three patients died from the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), two patients with ALL had a progression of the process during chemotherapy, which was aggravated by the ARDS syndrome and acute renal failure.
Despite positive COVID-19 status patients with oncohematologic diseases require urgent specific treatment. The virus SARS-CoV-2 worsens the condition of comorbid patients, the response to treatment, increases the possible emergence of resistant and refractory patients, due to the lengthening of the inter-course periods. Risk factors as older age, and comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, or cardiac disease can aggravate patient condition which were confirmed by scientific research data.
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